Selected quotations about what GPs are in China
| Quote No | Quote | Source |
| 1 | Participant 5, male: GPs mean training us to be able to do internal medicine, surgery, etc. All the specialties…
Participant 3, female: (GPs) can deal with all the diseases. Participant 2, female: Know a little about all the diseases. Participant 3, female: But no expertise. Participant 5, male: Be capable of treating every (disease). Participant 7, male: Be capable of treating every, no matter what it is. | FGD 4, students enrolled in 2010 at XMU |
| 2 | Participant 3, female: I quite like reading foreign novels such as Jane Eyre and Gone with the Wind. Through those novels, (I find that) they have family doctors. I feel our country is copying them (ie, high-income countries) in many aspects—of course those positive aspects. I think our GPs are copying their family doctors. But I think we need to wait until we turn better (in terms of financial capacity) and have the (economic) condition. Then we can be trained. Now even if it (the government) has trained us very well, there is no (appropriate) place to allocate us. Now our economic condition is limited, unlike foreign (developed) countries. They can hire this kind of doctors, while we cannot afford these family doctors. Our GPs are supposed to be like this in the future: like what has been written in foreign novels, I (one family doctor) is in charge of that family or the people in that area—their overall health. Our economic condition is still limited and still cannot reach that. | FGD 2, students enrolled in 2011 at HUCM |
| 3 | Participant 1, male: Family doctors in China—there are few those family doctors. Participant 6, female: Where are family doctors (to practise medicine)? At home? Participant 3, male: (Family doctors are) the doctors hired solely by people who have economic capacity and serve them (the rich). Participant 1, male: Basically there are few (in China). | FGD 6, students enrolled in 2012 at XMU |
| 4 | Participant 1, male: To my knowledge, there are no GPs in the hospitals of Zhengzhou (the capital and the biggest city of Henan Province). From those I am in touch with, they feel, when they hear of GPs, they consider them to be village doctors. | FGD 2, students enrolled in 2011 at HUCM |
| 5 | Participant 2, male: GPs have a guiding relationship (with patients). Assume one person goes to seek health care and he/she does not know what disease he/she has. Then (GPs’ job is to) tell him/her what the disease is. Then tell (the patient that) I (the GP) cannot cure it and (you need to) go to find that certain…certain discipline’s doctor (specialist) in the department (of a hospital) in the city. Then you will be given professional examination(s) (by the medial equipment) for further treatment. That is a filtering role—distinguish between small and big diseases. Participant 3, male: Right. Moderator: Since you understand it (the role of GPs) in this way, why do you want to treat rare and complicated diseases? Participant 3: Not rare and complicated diseases. (I) aim to make more patients, as much as treatment can, get treatment near home. It is relatively convenient. Moderator: Maybe your role (GP’s role) is to treat common diseases. You just refer those you are not supposed to be able to treat. Participant 3: If so, now you do not need a doctor with a bachelor degree. Participant 5, female: He means gradually expanding the scope of small diseases (that GPs can treat). Participant 3: If maintaining the status quo, there is no need to have doctors with a bachelor degree. The existing doctors in township hospitals are (qualified) enough to treat small diseases. (Those with) big diseases still need to go to a (big) hospital directly. Then this country’s problem of poor access to and high expenses of health care still cannot be solved. Moderator: How do you define small diseases? To what extent? Participant 3: This can only, gradually…Actually, becoming a GP, what to say, the boundary is not very clear. | FGD 5, students enrolled in 2013 at XMU |
| 6 | Participant 6, male: Currently guide doctors are not well managed. Now what we (GPs) are doing is equivalent to referral—essentially the same to guide doctors. (In the future) I plan to do guide doctor business—set up an independent company (to provide professional guide doctor services). | FGD 7, students enrolled in 2010 at XMU |
| 7 | Participant 1, female: My home is close to our village’s clinic. That clinic’s doctor is more than 70 years old. He has a very high reputation in our village—all the patients, male and female, the old and the young, all go to him to seek health care. Paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, he knows all. He relies on the experiences he has accumulated for so many years. When a patient comes, without using advanced medical equipment, he is able to diagnose the disease or narrow down the diagnosis to a very small scope—must be either this or that disease. I think he is awesome. When I find general practice, I think it is nice—learning both TCM and western medicine and after graduation I can be like him. When I opted for this discipline (general practice), I went to consult him. He told me this discipline was good—after graduation you could use either the knowledge of TCM or the knowledge of western medicine, or combine both. At least in rural regions or township (hospitals)—he knew I must go back to work in a township hospital—it would be very useful. Because after all it is impossible to employ only one mode (TCM or western medicine) to solve all the diseases. | FGD 1, students enrolled in 2010 at HUCM |
| 8 | Participant 7, female: The GPs at our place (my hometown), last time they told me you (after graduation and training) would do this—they went directly to villages, to people’s houses to (a male’s voice: fill in forms) check (family’s) information. Participant 1, male: What you said is public health. Public health is not to treat diseases. Participant 6, female: That’s prevention, prevention. Chaotic arguing which cannot be identified. Participant 3, male: Does the GP essentially belong to public health? Participant 1, male: No. Participant 5, female: Different from that (public health). Participant 1, male: You are a doctor, different from public health (practitioners). Public health, (you) randomly find a person (which means anyone) can do it—(public health is about) sending some questionnaires, surveys, etc. | FGD 3, students enrolled in 2011 at XMU |
FGD, focus group discussion; GP, general practitioner; HUCM, Henan University of Chinese Medicine; TCM, traditional Chinese medicine; XMU, Xinxiang Medical University.