(Yicai Global) Jan. 29 -- China needs 500,000 more general practitioners if it wants to set up a hierarchical medical treatment system and have one GP for every 2,000 residents, according to Chi Chunhua, dean of general medicine at Peking University Health Science Center.

In order to build a grassroots GP team, the State Council, China's cabinet, recently issued guidance and incentives to reform and improve training for doctors. The document clearly states that by 2020, there will be two to three qualified GPs for every 10,000 residents in urban and rural areas, and one for every 2,000 by 2030.

GPs, also known as family doctors, are major providers of healthcare management services. However, in China they receive low salaries, have little room for career progression and are not well respected. If China wants to bolster its medical system, this is the area that needs to develop the most.

"One of the most prominent problems is that GP jobs aren't attractive," said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health and Family Planning Commission. "By making the job more appealing, more young people will be willing to pursue it as a career."

The commission, Ministry of Education and State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine brought in the guidelines specifically to make GP jobs more alluring. They propose to raise income and bring in preferential policies and encourage businesses to open more general practice clinics.

The education ministry has teamed up with five other departments to offer free medical training to over 40,000 undergraduate students in township hospitals throughout Central and Western China.

"Starting from 2018, priority in clinical and traditional Chinese medicine master's degree enrolment programs will be given to areas with a shortage, such as general medicine," said Wu Yan, director of the education ministry's Department of Higher Education.