At a recent test, one doctor, wearing crystal-studded Birkenstock sandals, examined a patient who had insufficient blood flow to the brain by swinging a tiny silver hammer, the equipment that is used for testing reflexes.
“That isn’t the right way,” Li Yaling, head of the center’s science and education department, said with a sigh. She said the doctor was probably too nervous and should have used a cotton swab to stroke the soles of the patient’s feet instead.
Dr. Zhu Shanzhu, a teacher in the program, said one of the main problems was that doctors did too few physical examinations in the community clinics. Many of them lean toward prescribing medicine instead. Clinical reasoning, too, is poor, she said.
In 2000, Dr. Zhu designed a course to train general practitioners in Shanghai’s Zhongshan Hospital, at the request of its director. Her first course was free. No one showed up.
Nearly two decades later, Dr. Zhu, 71, says that training is still insufficient and doctors do not spend enough time studying the latest research and techniques in their field.
“If there’s more money, the good people will come,” she said. “And a high economic status will elevate the social status.”
The government has pledged to increase the salaries of family doctors. But Dr. Zhu isn’t optimistic.
“All these ministries need to coordinate among themselves,” she said. “Our country’s affairs, you know, they aren’t easy.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/30/business/china-health-care-doctors.html