Hiring more doctors in China actually made it harder for patients to get medical care.
March 18, 2026
Original Paper
The Functional Shortage of General Practitioners in China: Structural Misalignment and Workforce Capacity in Shanghai
SSRN · 6426311
The Takeaway
China's massive expansion of its General Practitioner workforce was negated because the new doctors are forced to spend over 40% of their time on 'compliance-driven administrative mandates.' This 'functional shortage' means that nominal staffing increases actually erased one-third of the country's clinical capacity as paperwork swallowed the new hires.
From the abstract
Background: China's primary care reform faces a critical challenge: nominal workforce expansion often masks functional capacity deficits. This study quantifies the "functional shortage" of General Practitioners (GPs) in Shanghai, investigating the structural misalignment between clinical roles and administrative mandates.<br><br>Methods: We conducted an exploratory sequential mixed-methods study within the Shanghai General Practice Research Network. Initial qualitative interviews with 22 GPs inf