Abstract:
Objective To analyze the status quo of community general practitioner team configuration and public health services provision in Shanghai, to provide references and evidences for further model development of community general practitioner team.
Methods Investigating all general practitioner teams of all community health centers in Shanghai by questionnaires and conducting relative statistical analysis such as counting, constituent ratio and median to compare the configuration and human resources of community general practitioner teams among central, suburban and exurban community health centers, and to sort the most frequently provided public health services in community.
Results Of the community health centers in Shanghai 96.62% have built up general practitioner teams. The rates of reaching the standard in regional (population) configuration and professional staff configuration are 59.83% and 27.34% respectively. On average, each team serves for 9 600 community residents, 3 neighborhood committees/villages, with the service radius of 1.5 km. A general practitioner team usually has 7 members. Regional configuration difference is existed among community general practitioner teams. The rates of reaching the standard in the central, suburban and exurban areas are 80.35%, 55.81%, and 47.79% respectively. In reference to the national standard of allocating professional staff for every 10 000 residents, the rates of reaching the standard in central, suburban and exurban areas are 6.07%, 38.15%, 34.95% respectively. The community general practitioner teams serve as much as 16 500 residents per team in central areas, but as little as 5 300 residents per team in exurban areas. Each team serves 5 neighborhood committees/villages in central areas on average and 2 neighborhood committees/villages in exurban areas. The average service radius is 0.68 km in central areas while in exurban areas is 2 km. Further speaking, the teams in central areas usualy include 2 general practitioners, 2 nurses and 2 public health physicians, but the teams in suburban areas usualy include 2 general practitioners, 2 nurses and 1 public health physician, while the teams in exurban areas include only 1 general practitioner, 1 nurse, 1 public health physician and 3 village doctors. The model general practitioner teams provided 23 items of public health services on average, with 60% of the top 20 items were related to chronic disease prevention and control.
Conclusion The construction of general practitioner team in community has almost finished in Shanghai. There are differences of team configuration among central, suburban and exurban communities and the configuration of professional staff should be improved. General practitioner teams provided public health services mainly on chronic disease prevention and control in community.