Family doctors the future of China's healthcare system

The program aims to provide better medical service to rural people and encourages people to seek medical care at grassroots medical institutions, reducing the pressure on hospitals in cities.

Statistics show that from 2009 to 2014, government spending on health amounted to 4 trillion yuan ($620 billion), 1.2 trillion yuan of which came from the central government.

Like Liu, many doctors in community hospitals have joined the family doctor program to better serve local patients.

"My phone was on 24/7 during the Spring Festival holiday in case any of my patients had an emergency or a health question," said Zhu Lan, a doctor in a community medical center on Xieshi Street in Xuhui District, Shanghai.
Shanghai started experimenting with a family doctor program in 2011.

Zhu, one of the first doctors to join the program, has signed with 1,060 families living along the street so far.

In Xi'an city in Shaanxi province, more than 2.5 million local residents have signed up with family doctors, and in Liaoning province, more than half of the rural population has joined the family doctor program.

Ali Health, Alibaba's health care subsidiary, launched a mobile application in Beijing to connect doctors from grassroots medical institutions and nearby residents. Patients can simply pick up their phones to interact with a doctor.

In the proposal for the 13th Five-year plan covering 2016 to 2020, the central government vowed to build a "healthy China" by reforming its health system, building a basic health care system covering both the urban and rural areas and a modern management system for hospitals.