Chart of the Day: Primary Care’s Shrinking Share of Patients

China’s top-level hospitals have rapidly grown in number and patient volume, while the proportion of patients treated at primary health care clinics has continued to fall, according to data released by the National Health Commission (NHC) last week.

Tertiary-level hospitals — often equipped with the finest resources and served by the best doctors — have doubled in number from 1,624 to 3,275 in the decade from 2012 to 2021. Meanwhile, up to a million primary health care units in rural villages and urban communities are left treating a fraction of patients, despite accounting for almost 95% of all health facilities in the country.