A delegate to the ongoing National People's Congress in Beijing from Guizhou province, Su Xiaomei, who is the director of the Guizhou Children's Hospital, has some suggestions on medical care for children.
Su, who has 32 years of experience in pediatrics and is at the annual NPC session for her fourth year, explains, "The new two-child policy is expected to bring a surge of births and we need to pay more attention to the shortage of medical resources and pediatricians."
China has 0.26 pediatrician for every 1,000 children compared to 6-times that figure in the US, so, Su adds, "around 200,000 pediatricians are needed to fill the gap," then goes on to point out that China's pediatricians have higher occupational risks because of the large work load, which has in turn lead to a loss of medical personnel and difficulties in getting medical care.
At the same time, pediatrics face the same strict requirement that other and medical graduates do and there is less interest in the job. The Guizhou Party Chief Chen Min'er backs up Su's assertion by saying, "Guizhou needs to identify its weaknesses and strengthen its advantages."
Su says that China could set up more medical institutes for children to provide services, and "offer better treatment and pay to pediatricians" as a solution.
