Aging society poses problem for nation's older doctors

Long-standing problem

The aging of medics is not new. A study published by the medical journal The Lancet in 2017 found that the proportion of doctors in China age 25 to 34 had fallen from 31.3 percent to 22.6 percent since 2005. Meanwhile, the proportion age 60 and older rose to 11.6 percent in 2015, compared with just 2.5 percent a decade earlier.

The demographic shift is also affecting the rural areas. According to the 2022 China Health Statistics Yearbook, compiled by the National Health Commission, there were 599,000 rural clinics in some 490,000 villages across the country, and about 1.36 million rural health workers. However, about 50,000 rural health workers retire every year.

Cheng Jing, a deputy to the National People's Congress and also a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Medicine, highlighted the problem during this year's two sessions, the annual meetings of the NPC and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

He said rural doctors are generally older, and the problem is getting worse. The lackluster pay for rural health workers has resulted in the loss of young village practitioners. In addition, 60 percent of them only have a technical secondary school degree or lower, and only 6.7 percent have a bachelor's or higher.

"The overall quality of village doctors is not high," Cheng told China National Radio.

Zhou, a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine in a rural part of Macheng, Hubei province, said that about 20 years ago there could be as many as five rural medical professionals in each village, but now some settlements don't even have one.

"The clinics in some villages are just empty," said the 53-year-old, who asked to only be identified by his surname because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

"We post recruitment advertisements every year, but there are never any applicants."

Like many who pick up the trade in rural regions, Zhou learned his skills from his father. He was in his 20s when he took classes from his father, a village doctor who was an expert in the use of herbal medicines.

The younger Zhou taught himself about medicine and was admitted to a junior college in 2000. Later, he passed an exam and obtained a license as a qualified practitioner of TCM. "I was the first doctor in the local villages to get a license and get the highest degree," he said. "That's likely still the case, even after so many years."

Contact the writer at lilei@chinadaily.com.cn