An employment advertisement in a recent Shanghai Xinmin Evening News said that full-time private doctors were wanted in Shanghai. The applicants are required to be former general practitioners or physicians aged between 35 and 65.

The private doctor is a new phenomenon in China. Different from ordinary hospital doctors, they treat mainly healthy people and must have comprehensive knowledge about the patients' health. They are actually the customers' health managers. A private doctor can have 50 to 100 patients.

Yang Guoxian, vice-director of Shanghai Boai Hospital, is responsible for hiring. He said that there were already many applicants, but many lacked the principle of service to the patient. The Boai Hospital is planning to provide training courses to prepare applicants into private doctors.

The patients consist of middle- and high-income residents who are prepared to pay several thousand RMB (several hundred US dollars) annually.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2003)