ObjectiveTo investigate the characteristics and existing problems of village and township level medical and health professionals, and to provide suggestions for strengthening the construction of medical personnel teams in rural areas.

MethodsTaking Haimen City of Jiangsu Province as an example, we analyzed the distribution of the medical professionals and discussed the impact on the township level medical and health personnel in the process of medical reform in Haimen City in recent years.

ResultsThere were 3 986 medical professionals in total in Haimen City.The number of doctors and nurses per thousand residents was 2.3 and 2.1, respectively, which was lower than the national standard of county-level cities.Among them, there were 2 727 medical technical personnel, about 40% of whom were with junior and intermediate titles.Only 18.92% of them had vice-high or above professional titles, about 50.16% professionals aged 30-39 years.Only 17.34% of the professionals were engaged in preventive medicine, and the proportion of those engaged in public health was only 10.82% in rural areas.It was difficult to introduce personnel and there was lack of training and incentive mechanism.

ConclusionAccording to the current requirements of medical reform, we should actively introduce talents, provide technical assistance, strengthen training, and implement performance reform, so as to improve the ability of medical and health personnel in towns and villages, especially in rural areas.