The number of Chinese medicine practitioners in China is declining

On December 14, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine issued the first survey on the basic conditions of Chinese medicine since the founding of New China. The number of practitioners of Chinese medicine per 10,000 people in the country is only about 3, and the number of beds per 10,000 Chinese medicine hospitals is less than 4. Beijing has the highest number of Chinese medicine beds per ten thousand people and the number of practicing physicians, which are 6.87 and 5.65 respectively.

"This is the first time since the founding of New China that we have conducted a comprehensive investigation of the basic conditions of Chinese medicine in 31 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities) and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. More than 800,000 people have participated in the investigation." According to people, the surveyed institutions covered all types of medical institutions at all levels, totaling 793,600. Among them are urban hospitals, clinics, clinics, community health service centers (stations), rural township (street) hospitals, health clinics, medical clinics, village clinics, and maternity and child care hospitals, nursing homes, etc.

The survey showed that of the 793,600 medical institutions surveyed, 440,700 institutions were able to provide Chinese medical services, accounting for 59.6% of the surveyed institutions. That is, nearly 60% of medical institutions have Chinese medicine services.

How many people eat Chinese medicine now? The survey data shows that among all types of medical institutions, Chinese medicine prescriptions account for 9.5% of the total prescriptions, and Chinese medicine prescriptions account for 17.4% of the total prescriptions. Adding both, more than one-quarter of the patients in the country are taking Chinese medicine or proprietary Chinese medicines.

Now there are so many people who go to cupping. How many medical institutions can provide Chinese medicine such as scraping, cupping, and acupuncture? According to the survey, primary medical and health institutions that can use traditional Chinese medicine such as acupuncture, massage, cupping, and scraping occupies the proportion of similar institutions. Community service centers have reached 81.7%, while township hospitals have reached 65.6%. That is, Bacheng Community can provide citizens with Chinese medicine services at home.

In addition, many people are willing to adopt the combination of Chinese and Western medicines after they become ill. How much is this ratio? The survey shows that 61% of the community service centers can use Chinese medicine technology and methods to carry out infectious disease prevention services. The rate of combined services for prevention and treatment of hypertension, diabetes, and coronary heart disease with integrated Chinese and Western medicine also reached 90.1%, 86.2%, and 74.3%, respectively.

According to statistics, the average number of doctors per 10,000 people in China in 2006 was 15.3. The survey shows that the proportion of practicing doctors in TCM practitioners is 21%. In the village clinics, about 5% of the practitioners qualified as practising (assistant) doctors in the TCM category, and 12% were rural doctors with Chinese medicine knowledge. The rural doctors in Zhonghui West accounted for 36%.

Therefore, Yu Wenming, the deputy director of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, stated that some of the difficulties and problems found in the investigation were caused by problems with the system and mechanism, some problems with the implementation of policies and regulations, and some problems with the inherent laws and characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine that were not respected and played out. Some of them are new problems in the development of traditional Chinese medicine under the new situation. With the deepening of medical reforms and the implementation of the 12th Five-Year Plan, some problems will be gradually solved.