Primary Care Structure in Each City
| Measure | Hong Kong | Singapore | Beijing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered physicians | |||
| Registered physicians, No. | 14,70010 | 14,334 | 115,771 |
| Primary care physicians working in public health centers, No. | 42913 | 455 | 32,298a |
| Private primary care physicians, No. | 2,47614 | 1,434 | … |
| Public primary care health centers, No. | 739 | 20 | 10,306 |
| Ratio of public to private outpatient visits | 30:7015 | 20:80 | … |
| Structure of public primary care health centers | |||
| Location | Independent clinics or within public hospital grounds | Independent buildings or within integrated developments in the community | Mostly independent clinics |
| Funding | Public funding | Public funding with copayment in cash out of pocket or through Medisave | Public funding |
| Practice size | 2 to 20 | 10 to 30 | At least 2 to 6 (flexible based on number of residents in community) |
| Relationship to public health | Separate entities | Separate entities | Integrated system |
| Referral process | Referral to specialist outpatient clinics of public or private clinics/hospitals | Referral to specialist outpatient clinics of public hospitals | Referral to specialist (including physicians with GP certificates) outpatient clinics of hospitals |
| Structure of private primary care health centers | |||
| Location | Independent clinics or within private hospital grounds | Mainly independent clinics | … |
| Funding | Out of pocket or insurance | Out of pocket, insurance (self or employer), or public funding (CHAS) | … |
| Practice size | Solo or small group | Solo or small group | … |
| Relationship to public health | Separate entities | Separate entities | … |
| Referral process | Referral to specialist outpatient clinics in public or private clinics/hospitals | Referral to specialist outpatient clinics in private clinics/hospitals or (only for those on CHAS) public clinics/hospitals | … |
CHAS = Community Health Assistance Scheme; GP = general practitioner.
Note: all data for Singapore from Singapore Medical Council11; all data for Beijing from Beijing Municipal Health Commission Policy Research Center.12
↵a The figures are total numbers (both the public and the non-public included). The primary care system in Beijing is largely publicly funded. Only a small number of institutions are non-publicly funded, and to our knowledge, there has not been any official statistics released on this part.