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French doctor works to build an international clinic
By Xu Wenwen |
January 10, 2012, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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DR Kurt Matthaus is a general practitioner attached to the general consulates of France, Switzerland and Austria in Shanghai and several airline companies. Every Friday and Saturday he works for a pittance at Anchor International Healthcare Center in Hangzhou.
The 63-year-old Frenchman has been driven to establish international-quality healthcare in Hangzhou, which until recently had virtually none.
"It's my choice, the problem is not money, the problem is there has to be someone to build up an international clinic in the city," says Matthaus, who has volunteered in Mongolia, China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province after the earthquake in May 2008.
Last September, Matthaus and a team established Anchor International Healthcare Center, which is a partner with Zhejiang Hospital. It has two foreign doctors, including Matthaus and another doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, and several Chinese doctors. It has treated more than 200 patients so far.
According to the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau, more than 8,000 expatriates live in the city, while foreign doctors, general practitioners like Matthaus, are very few and work only at the Anchor International Healthcare Center and Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital.
"It doesn't mean that a city with foreigners needs foreign doctors, but it needs doctors fluent in foreign languages, and there are few," says Ma Shide, Anchor's marketing manager.
Matthaus settled in China in 2002 after working in Tibet with a French non-governmental organization since 1999. He later closed his private practice in France and worked in Shanghai. He has traveled for work or teaching to Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Ningbo and Hangzhou.
What he witnessed made him decide to stay longer.
"I found that the Chinese medical system is exclusively based on hospital practice and specialists, and that means people need to know what problem they have before seeing a doctor, which is inconvenient," he says.
Besides, putting children who are well enough to sit and eat on a drop and giving people with ganmao (cold/flu) simply an infusion is all unnecessary disruption for a doctor, he says.
In 2004 he determined to help the nearby city of Hangzhou, and started to hold general practice sessions and pediatric consultation in Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital. He also did clinical teaching for students and doctors.
He realized his dream last September in the Anchor International Healthcare Center, a fully functioning international clinic providing emergency service, pediatrics, general care, some inpatient beds, pharmacy, use of English and an English hotline for making appointments.
From doctors and students he learned what he considered disturbing information about the facts of clinical care in China - Chinese doctors usually see more than 100 patients a day.
"In the West a doctor only sees around 20 patients every day. I think the time a doctor can spend on examination, observation and analysis is probably the biggest difference between Chinese and Western doctors," Matthaus says.
At this time most Chinese doctors are specialists, such as surgeons, pediatricians, osteopaths and obstetricians. Only a few hospitals have general practitioners, or internists who are common in the West and handle many kinds of health issues not requiring a specialist. Very few medical schools offer a GP major in internal medicine.
More than a year ago, the Chinese government released a plan to train 60,000 family physicians nationwide in three years. The aim is to have one or two family doctors for every 10,000 residents and one family doctor in every village.
The plan was aimed to address the shortage of doctors, but a major problem in China is that specialists are considered high-status and receive high pay. Family doctors or internists, the backbone of Western medicine, are looked down upon as low-status work because of relatively lower payment than specialists.
The 63-year-old Frenchman has been driven to establish international-quality healthcare in Hangzhou, which until recently had virtually none.
"It's my choice, the problem is not money, the problem is there has to be someone to build up an international clinic in the city," says Matthaus, who has volunteered in Mongolia, China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Sichuan Province after the earthquake in May 2008.
Last September, Matthaus and a team established Anchor International Healthcare Center, which is a partner with Zhejiang Hospital. It has two foreign doctors, including Matthaus and another doctor of traditional Chinese medicine, and several Chinese doctors. It has treated more than 200 patients so far.
According to the Hangzhou Public Security Bureau, more than 8,000 expatriates live in the city, while foreign doctors, general practitioners like Matthaus, are very few and work only at the Anchor International Healthcare Center and Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital.
"It doesn't mean that a city with foreigners needs foreign doctors, but it needs doctors fluent in foreign languages, and there are few," says Ma Shide, Anchor's marketing manager.
Matthaus settled in China in 2002 after working in Tibet with a French non-governmental organization since 1999. He later closed his private practice in France and worked in Shanghai. He has traveled for work or teaching to Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Ningbo and Hangzhou.
What he witnessed made him decide to stay longer.
"I found that the Chinese medical system is exclusively based on hospital practice and specialists, and that means people need to know what problem they have before seeing a doctor, which is inconvenient," he says.
Besides, putting children who are well enough to sit and eat on a drop and giving people with ganmao (cold/flu) simply an infusion is all unnecessary disruption for a doctor, he says.
In 2004 he determined to help the nearby city of Hangzhou, and started to hold general practice sessions and pediatric consultation in Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital. He also did clinical teaching for students and doctors.
He realized his dream last September in the Anchor International Healthcare Center, a fully functioning international clinic providing emergency service, pediatrics, general care, some inpatient beds, pharmacy, use of English and an English hotline for making appointments.
From doctors and students he learned what he considered disturbing information about the facts of clinical care in China - Chinese doctors usually see more than 100 patients a day.
"In the West a doctor only sees around 20 patients every day. I think the time a doctor can spend on examination, observation and analysis is probably the biggest difference between Chinese and Western doctors," Matthaus says.
At this time most Chinese doctors are specialists, such as surgeons, pediatricians, osteopaths and obstetricians. Only a few hospitals have general practitioners, or internists who are common in the West and handle many kinds of health issues not requiring a specialist. Very few medical schools offer a GP major in internal medicine.
More than a year ago, the Chinese government released a plan to train 60,000 family physicians nationwide in three years. The aim is to have one or two family doctors for every 10,000 residents and one family doctor in every village.
The plan was aimed to address the shortage of doctors, but a major problem in China is that specialists are considered high-status and receive high pay. Family doctors or internists, the backbone of Western medicine, are looked down upon as low-status work because of relatively lower payment than specialists.
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