China celebrates the first “Chinese Doctors’ Day”

On August 19, China celebrated the nation’s first “Doctors’ Day” and 80 doctors were awarded for the “Medal of Chinese Medical Doctor” at the People’s Hall in Beijing during the 11th Award Ceremony organized by the Chinese Medical Doctor Association.

Now the Chinese Doctors’ Day has been the fourth festival with a State Council’s approval for a specific profession, the other three are Teachers’ Day, Journalists’ Day, and Nurses’ Day respectively. The celebration of the festival shows the importance and incentives that China and its ruling party CPC have given to 3.39 million registered medical practitioners and over 0.9 million doctors working in rural communities nationwide. It is a decisive action to encourage the whole society to pay more respects and attentions to doctors and the healthcare sector, which inspired all medical workers in the country.

On August 19, 2016, President Xi Jinping stated during the first National Health Conference that strategical importance should be attached to people’s health issues which shall be in the top priority list for development; and comprehensive planning has been made on the strategy of promoting the concept of “Heathy China”. According to the president, medical doctors, who safeguard people’s health, are the main force for promoting China’s healthcare industry.

On November 3, 2017, the State Council approved that China will celebrate Chinese Doctors’ Day on August 19 every year starting from 2018. That is a milestone in the history of Chinese healthcare industry.

At present, the number of medical doctors in China keeps going steadily up. Till the end of 2017, the total amount of the nation’s healthcare staff reached 11.749 million, including 3.39 million medical practitioners, 0.9 million rural doctors. For the past 40 years, a solid foundation has been laid in the construction of a medical talents pool for pushing forward the development of healthcare industry. Till now, 2.44 practicing medical doctors and assistants were secured for per thousand people, 1.82 general practitioners and 6.28 healthcare personnel were secured for per ten thousand people. And there are 211 academicians working in healthcare field and 61 medical doctors who enjoy high-level national reputation. From 2000 to 2017, 597 national awards for natural sciences, technological invention and progress in science and technology have been presented to people working on medical science, including Tu Youyou, the Nobel Laureate in medicine.

The 80 winners of the 11th “Medal of Chinese Medical Doctors” that makes additional appraisals of all candidates’ medical ethics and practices, serve as good examples for such best practices of “being dedicated to saving lives with unconditional love and respect for lives”.

The 80 winners all come from different provinces, enjoying a broad geographical distribution. The average age of those winners is 55, with the youngest aged at 36, and the oldest at 97. They worked on 35 clinical domains including gynecology and obstetrics, pediatrics, anesthesiology, general practice, traditional Chinese medicine, and stomatology etc. There are academicians among the candidates, while primary level medical doctors account for 12.5% of all winners. And 11% winners are people from such 9 ethnic groups as Tibetan, Tujia, Hui, Buyi and so on.

(Ge Junbo)

Ge Junbo, an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, told CN-Healthcare that he feels so lucky to receive that award, which is not for one specific outstanding scientific breakthrough or contribution, but for long-term efforts made in healthcare sector. And he said he will continue to work as an excellent example for young doctors and lead them to respect science and safeguard lives.

(left: Lai Xiaoping)

Lai Xiaoping, a pediatrician from Fujian Tingzhou Hospital with a primary level background, said, “pediatricians are always busy, my colleagues and I provide medical services for all children within the county; we are ordinary people, and we know that all efforts made are so worthwhile when we see more and more lives have been saved and more kids have been discharged from the hospital upon recovery.” According to Lai, the reason for her to win the award is her hard-working efforts throughout the years.