A CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY ON THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE RURAL DOCTOR WORKFORCE IN YUXI CITY, YUNNAN PROVINCE
Keywords:
Village doctors, Primary-level health, Human resource allocationAbstract
Objective: This study aims to fully understand the basic status of rural doctors in Yuxi City, Yunnan Province, systematically evaluate their workforce quantity, demographic structure and service capacity, deeply analyze the major problems and restrictive factors hindering the construction of the rural doctor team, and provide scientific evidence for optimizing the composition of rural doctors, improving their service capabilities, and advancing the development of the primary medical and health service system in Yuxi City. Methods: A complete census was conducted covering all 649 village clinics across 9 counties (districts/county-level cities) of Yuxi City. A total of 99 rural doctors with ≥3 missing information items were excluded, and 1667 subjects were finally included for analysis. Indicators including workplace, gender, employment status, staffing category, personnel type, major, educational background and working years were analyzed. Results: Significant gender differences were observed among rural doctors in Yuxi City (P<0.01), with females accounting for the majority (1188 individuals). The gender ratio was the lowest in Huaning County at 19.86% and the highest in Yuanjiang County at 102.25%. A total of 1624 rural doctors were formally staffed, accounting for 97.42% of the total participants. Secondary technical school education dominated the sample with 1131 practitioners, representing 67.85%. The number of rural doctors per 10,000 population ranged from a peak of 10.9 in Eshan County to a minimum of 5.0 in Hongta District. Rural doctors aged 41–50 years constituted the largest group (570 persons, 34.19%), while 5 practitioners aged ≥61 years were all rehired retirees. The largest group in terms of working years had 11–20 years of service (588 persons). Conclusion: Shortages of rural doctors exist to varying degrees in Yuxi City, which requires high attention from authorities at all levels. During the implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan, targeted measures should be adopted to address the above-mentioned deficiencies and weaknesses, laying a solid foundation for the high-quality development of primary healthcare.References
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