A recent news report said up to 14,000 mainland doctors could be working for foreign-owned pharmaceutical companies in the next five years, because even a doctor in Dalian, Liaoning province, can triple his/her income after making such a decision, says an article on eastday.com. Excerpts:

Many doctors' salaries don't reflect their hard work, experience, knowledge and professional skills. A "pricing system" similar to marketization, which doesn't reflect a physician's true worth, is spreading gradually because there is a dearth of medical resources and good doctors.

Pharmaceutical companies and patients' relatives pay doctors kickbacks and extra money to get favors and ensure proper treatment for their loved ones. The lack of a sense of achievement and growth among young doctors are also big problems. Though there is a training mechanism for resident doctors, only a few of them use it to gather experience and hone their skills.

Apart from providing medical treatment, doctors have to perform many other unnecessary tasks. Promotion or pay rise does not depend only on professional skills, experience and knowledge but also on the number of projects, funds and programs a doctor holds. Since it is hard to determine a doctor's responsibility and skills, a so-called quantitative management system has been introduced. But this system creates many problems and even discourages individual initiative because it is not based on work or excellence.

The tense relationship between doctors and patients is another problem, which is created by defective laws, improper social education and unprofessional media publicity. Though doctors can make good money from the bribes they get from patients' families, pressures from outside the medical field and a lost sense of achievement are driving them away from hospitals to medicine companies.

China Daily