The Role and Scope of Private Medical Practice in China

Chapter 2. Methodology
3. Interviews with selected key informants
The following selected key informants were personally interviewed by the
provincial professors on the research collaboration team in each of the three
provinces.
• 8 selected health officials ((3 from Guangdong, 3 from Sichuan, and 2
from Shanxi)
• 6 selected private health care investors (2 from each province):
• 15 selected health care facility managers (5 from Shanxi, 4 from
Guangdong and 4 from Sichuan; 8 are from the private sector, while 5 are
from the public sector)
The following issues were explored:
• Role of private medical practice
• Whether government should encourage growth of the private sector
• Part time work of public doctors in private sector
• Regulation of the health sector
• Other concerns.
4. Review of documents from official sources
Additional information was obtained from a number of official documents
pertaining to private medical practice in China. These comprised national documents
obtained from the MOH (Department of Healthcare Management and Centre of
Health Statistic Information) (see Annex C) and provincial documents obtained from
the Provincial Health Bureaus and City/County Health Bureaus (see Annex D). The
aim was to gain an understanding of the policy contextual background to the
development of private medical practice in China.
Healthcare statistics (1995 to 2000) were also obtained, as was information
relating to private healthcare facilities and foreign joint venture healthcare facilities.
Training
To achieve common ground among all research team members and the
provincial research collaborators, training workshops were conducted by the WHO
consultant at Peking University, on the objective and design of the study, the
techniques and methodologies for questionnaire design and analysis, and practical tips
on the conduct of questionnaire surveys, focus groups and interviews.
The provincial researchers, in turn, conducted training workshops for field
investigators (medical students from the respective medical universities) in the
provinces. As part of the provincial investigators’ training, a pilot study involving 50
households was carried out, but the results were excluded from the database of the
main survey.
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