For a long time, pediatric resources in China have been mainly concentrated in large hospitals, and the pediatrics of primary health institutions are weak. Studies about the current situation of pediatric construction and service provision in primary health institutions are mainly concentrated in a few developed areas, and studies about the latest progress in the whole country are not found.

To analyze the construction and service provision of pediatrics in primary health institutions in China.

From January to February 2022, 6 406 primary health institutions were surveyed using stratified sampling and the self-made questionnaire was used to collect relevant data on pediatric construction, pediatric human resource allocation, pediatric essential drugs, major equipment allocation, pediatric service provision in all sampled primary health institutions in 2021. Descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used to analyze the influencing factors of the number of pediatric consultations and the rate of child health management in primary health institutions by Stata 15.0.

31.41% (1 488/4 737) and 39.07% (652/1 669) of township health centers and community health centers independently set up pediatrics, respectively. On average, the number of general practitioners providing services for children and pediatric practitioners in township health centers was (1.33±2.52) and (0.94±1.71), respectively, and the number of community health centers was (1.95±3.80) and (1.26±2.06), respectively. The proportion of institutions equipped with 1-3 kinds of pediatric essential drugs in township health centers and community health centers was relatively high, which were 38.91% (1 843/4 737) and 40.85% (694/1 669), respectively. Except CT, the equipped rates of automatic biochemical instrument, DR and B-ultrasound are more than 80%. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that the types of institutions, the total number of employees, the actual number of beds, independent pediatricians, the number of pediatric practitioners, the number of general practitioners providing pediatric services, the contract rate of children and the number of drugs were the influencing factors of pediatric clinical service provision (P<0.05). Region, the total number of employees, and the children contract rate were the influencing factors of the children health management rate in primary health institutions (P<0.05) .

The pediatric department of primary health institutions is insufficient and there is a certain shortage of manpower, medicine, and equipment resulting in insufficient clinical services for children and differences between urban and rural areas, and the integration of clinical service and prevention still needs to be implemented.