Primary care in Asia: a call for compulsory vocational training

摘要

As there is wide recognition of the unique professional skills of primary care, vocational training for the discipline has evolved from a voluntary process into a mandatory universal standard in many Western countries. However, advanced Asian economies like Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have yet to follow suit. In this article, we compare the training requirements of primary care doctors in these four places with that in the Western world, discuss the drawback of the current policy in Asia, and contend that the next generation of primary care doctors should all receive compulsory vocational training for the purpose of certification.