What Future for the Standardized Training of Pediatric Surgery Residents in Chinese General Hospitals?

Over the past three decades, pediatric surgery in Chinese general hospitals has progressed along with the overall improvement of the pediatric healthcare system. However, it now faces severe challenges, including declining academic influence, difficulties in recruiting residents for standardized training, and mounting financial pressures-all of which directly jeopardize the quality of talent cultivation. Nevertheless, pediatric surgery in general hospitals holds great value: it is essential for completing the pediatric care system, promoting equitable distribution of medical resources, and maintaining diversity in residency training, since many routine procedures are performed there, and their widespread presence substantially reduces travel distances for children seeking care. Given the stringent requirements of the 2022 training base standards regarding case mix, surgical volume, and subspecialty coverage, as well as the broader skill set demanded by the increasing adoption of minimally invasive techniques, future development might pursue a differentiated path. General hospitals may leverage their institutional strengths to build distinctive subspecialties and establish cross-institutional collaborative training mechanisms that enable rotation exchanges, credit recognition, and resource sharing. This approach may compensate for deficiencies in subspecialty depth and systematically elevate the overall quality of regional pediatric surgery residency training.