The parents of 8-year-old Xiaoxiao spent three nights cradling their sick child on a hospital floor desperate to see a doctor. They are just one of the millions of families who seek out pediatric specialists in the hope their child will be cured.

But the healthcare system, designed to look after the welfare of some of the nation's most vulnerable people, is itself in critical condition.

The dire shortage of 200,000 pediatricians was highlighted in the media last week as medical professionals spoke out about the grim prognosis for children's healthcare in China.

Nothing matters more to a parent than the welfare of a child, but when those charged with providing that care say the system is failing, then we all have cause for concern.

The symptoms are clear. China simply does not have enough trained pediatricians now to cope with demand, and is failing to train enough to meet future needs.

But the roots of the problem run much deeper than simply trying to meet the patient-to-doctor ratios of Western countries. Finding a cure for the faltering system requires properly diagnosing the causes.

The numbers speak for themselves. There is a shortage of pediatricians, yet China has only 60 hospitals able to offer this specialist training. Each hospital can only train 30 pediatric doctors a year. It would take more than 100 years to bridge the gap. And the numbers will dwindle further as experienced pediatricians retire.

But it begs the question. Why has the care of children become so problematic in a healthcare system that has undergone continual reform over the past 20 years?

In 1999 China abandoned pediatrics as an undergraduate major, leading to a major shortage of doctors who specialize in treating babies and children, non-specialists are often unable to explain their symptoms clearly.

Then there's the cost issue. Many hospitals were forced to close down their pediatric wards because they were not profitable. Hospitals make money from drugs, and while an adult may need two tablets to treat a condition, a child might only need a quarter.

And then there is the fact that pediatrics is light on profits but heavy on litigation and medical disputes.

The reason behind the spiraling numbers is not just a growing population, it is also the psychology of the parents.

In a country where the family planning policy applies, parents will seek out the best medical care for their offspring. Some travel hundreds of miles to specialist children's hospitals because their local medical facility has been unable to cure their child. Others are not convinced of their local pediatrician's skills and want their child to be seen by the best despite enduring a much longer wait.

In Beijing, there are just two dedicated children's hospitals - Beijing Children's Hospital and the Capital Institute of Pediatrics. Another 100 hospitals have pediatric departments, but figures show 90 percent of child patients are treated at the two hospitals.

At Beijing Children's hospital, 7,000 patients turn up each day - it can reach 10,000 - despite it having a design capacity for only 4,000.

It's a similar story at the Capital Institute of Pediatrics, which treated 1.7 million patients in 2010, up from 800,000 in 2003.

It all adds up to a system that is sick and in desperate need of a cure. Let's hope we heed the calls of the medical professionals who spoke out last week and pediatric care becomes a priority in the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).

We can't afford to wait another minute when children are dying to see a doctor.

The author is a copy editor with China Daily website.

(China Daily 02/24/2011 page8)