(Yicai) May 28 -- JD Health, the healthcare arm of Chinese e-commerce titan JD.com, has shuttered its family doctor division, which was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide health consultancy and other services to the general public, for failing to become profitable.

The department, which was launched in August 2020, has never managed to get off the ground, despite being regarded as a strategic offering by JD Health, Yicai learned.

“Despite much investment, the family doctor division was never able to make a profit, nor did it have any other value, so as a result, it has been closed,” said an insider close to the senior management of Beijing-based JD Health.

The division aimed to provide customers with health consultancy services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with an unlimited number of consultations, follow-up visits and prescriptions. It also offered the booking of outpatient appointments at more than 2,700 hospitals, online consultations with leading doctors within 48 hours, the collection of health-related information, formulation of healthcare plans and many other services.

Doctors working in government hospitals were not willing to get involved in the scheme, which put a strain on the division, another industry insider said.

The former head of the division, Tan Tianhong, has moved to another position, most of the staff have resigned and a few have shifted to different jobs internally.

It is not surprising that JD Health has closed down the business division, other insiders said. Other attempts, such as doctor consultation app Chunyu Yisheng, healthcare software company Ping An Good Doctor and online medical services platform Haodaifu, were also unable to succeed.

If the family doctor business model wants to succeed, it should be rooted in grassroots healthcare instead of trying to enlist high-end private doctors, said Liu Dong, an observer of the Internet-based healthcare sector. As China introduces a graded diagnostic and treatment system, family doctors can become suppliers of technologies and resources, even if this does not involve healthcare platforms and will have limited profitability.

Editor: Kim Taylor