Challenges in establishing a graded diagnosis and treatment system in China

Dear Editor, As general practitioners (GPs), we found the article 'General practitioners' perspectives of the integrated health care system: a cross-sectional study in Wuhan, China' (1) thought-provoking. The purpose of the study was to investigate the opinions of Chinese GPs on the integrated health care system. Using a self-designed questionnaire, the authors conducted a cross-sectional survey of 764 GPs in Wuhan, China, which mainly included information on GPs' knowledge and attitude towards the integrated health care system. This study found that 70.09% of GPs thought that the integrated health care system could promote downward referral of patients. 70.1% of the GPs believed that the biggest difficulty in the practice of the integrated health care system was insufficient publicity, and 68.8% thought that the two-way referral mechanism was imperfect. The authors concluded that insufficient publicity and the incomplete two-way referral mechanism were considered as the main obstacles to the...