Give doctors freedom through medical reform

To make it easier for the people to see doctors, the government should distribute its medical resources more fairly across the country, said an article in Southern Metropolis Daily (excerpts below).

Chinese doctors can only work in hospitals. The authorities should give them more freedom to serve their patients and independently build their careers. It is good to learn that the Shenzhen city government applied to the Guangdong provincial authority to give it the green light to turn its hospitals' doctors into free practitioners.

China's medical reform has not touched two difficult issues. First, doctors at some public hospitals deserve the freedom to treat patients as individual practitioners. Second, civil servants and government employees should join the medical security system for the general public. This privileged group of people monopolizes too many quality medical resources.

Thus, a huge amount of medical resources are restricted to big hospitals in cities for a certain group of people.

Hospitals should not treat doctors as their own talents. Hospitals must compete with each other for good doctors.