By the end of the year, Shanghai will have at least 40 community training bases for general practitioners, a move by local government to promote the community-based medical service.

In 2010, Shanghai launched an innovative training program for medical students. Under the program, the first of its kind in the country, students who graduate from medical school after five years of study will have another three-year practical training period in clinical medicine at local hospitals.

During the three-year practice period, they should spend at least half a year at local community medical service centers to give them better knowledge about being a general practitioner, an official from Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau said.

Whether working as specialists at hospitals or GPs at community medical centers, these graduates should formally start their work only after they have passed all the evaluations during the three-year practice, the official said.

So far, the bureau has announced its first batch of 20 community medical service centers as training bases. The number will increase to between 40 and 45 by the end of the year, according to the bureau.