| Abstract: | Objective To know basic status of general practitioners (GPs) who passed the national qualification examination for medium-level health professional title of general practice ( GP examination). Methods Distributions of age, gender, educational level, work experience and affiliations of 9613 GPs who passed GP examination in 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under direct jurisdiction of central government, as well as Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, during 2001 to 2007 were analyzed. Results During 2001 to 2007, totally 19 295 health professionals took GP examination and 9613 of them passed, accounting for 49.8% of the total. Number of health professionals passed GP examination increased yearly, 533 in 2001,818 in 2002, 776 in 2003, 1218 in 2004, 1330 in 2005, 1809 in 2006 and 3109 in 2007, with an average age decreasing year by year. Most of GPs who passed the examination were from east part of the country, accounting for 63.4%, and the rest were from central and west parts, accounting for 36.6% of the total. Most GPs who passed the examination were graduated from three-year-curriculum medical schools and secondary vocational schools, accounting for 73.1% (7027/9613) of the total, and 47.0% (4521/9613) of them were from primary-care hospitals, community health care centers and township hospitals. Conclusions Number of GPs who passed the examination increased year by year and their force has brought to take shape. However, there still exist some problems in general practice, suchas short in number, obvious discrepancy in geographical distribution, lower educational level of GPs and unreasonable structure of GPs from varied institutions. |
