China has initiated a 10-year educational programme which will cultivate more high-calibre doctors and train more general medical practitioners to serve the countryside. Emphasised at improving medical students' capacity in clinical practices the programme will require them to go through training in medical ethics and a formal residency before turning doctors says a notice issued by the Ministry of Education. A total of 125 Chinese universities have been designated as the first batch of higher-education institutions to lecture medical students under the scheme. Unlike the US where medical graduates have to undergo tough examinations and residency programmes before becoming doctors the majority of
