兒科醫生荒 (érkē yīshēng huāng): Shortage of pediatricians

Many delegates to the people's congress of Southwest China's Sichuan province and members of its people's political consultative conference recently discussed the shortage of pediatricians and its effects on society. On Tuesday, 14 members of the people's political consultative conference of the province wrote a joint letter to Minister of Education Yuan Guiren, asking him to add pediatrics to the list of undergraduate degree programs.

The shortage of pediatricians has become a nationwide problem. According to China Health Statistics Yearbook 2015, the number of pediatricians in China has dropped from 105,000 to 100,000 in the past five years.

Under the existing medical treatment system, it is difficult for hospitals to make handsome profits from children. Instead, they face a greater risk of patient-hospital disputes when it comes to children's medical treatment. Therefore, many hospitals are reluctant to establish pediatrics departments, with some even doing away with their existing ones to avoid trouble.

It is good to see society paying attention to the problems caused by shortage of pediatricians, especially at a time when the government has allowed all couples to have two children.

However, simply strengthening the undergraduate program for pediatrics may not solve the problem－for that, the authorities have to reform the medical treatment system as well and build up trust between patients and doctors.