Aging society poses problem for nation's older doctors
Release time: Jun 5,2023
Reading volume: 320
Senior medics are concerned that China's health service may experience a shortage of qualified replacements when they step down. Li Lei reports.
Cao Huiling, 50, looked around her workplace and came to an unwelcome conclusion: Her employer, a county-level hospital in Xingping, Shaanxi province, was sliding into a demographic crisis.
Almost all of her 60-plus colleagues were age 45 or older, and many were approaching the legal retirement age, which is 55 for women and 60 for men.
"In just a few years, we will be running out of working-age doctors," said Cao, the only ear, nose and throat specialist at the hospital, a grade 2 facility under China's three-tier rating system.
