Local setting The study was conducted in four counties in central China, two in Hubei province and two in Jiangxi province.
Relevant changes Village doctors prioritize medical services but they do their best to manage their time to include public health services.
The willingness of township health centre directors and village doctors to provide public health services has improved since the introduction
of the package and a minimum subsidy, but village doctors do not find the subsidy to be sufficient remuneration for their efforts.
Lessons learnt Improving the delivery of public health services by village doctors is likely to require an increase in the subsidy, improvement in
the supervisory relationship between village clinics and township health centres and the creation of a government pension for village doctors