The Good Samaritans of Songjiang District

Editor's note:

During the pandemic resurgence in Songjiang District, locals formed groups and entrusted tasks to volunteers to help people. Some of them were critically ill patients; others needed medicine, while bus drivers made the daily trips from the district to the neighboring city of Ningbo. These are some of their stories.

The life-saving fleet

They are calling it their life-saving bus!

The shuttle bus from Yueyang Subdistrict in Songjiang takes seriously ill people to hospitals in downtown Shanghai every day for treatment.

"Since the launch of the bus line, we have transferred about 20 patients daily. We set off in the morning, send them to their hospitals, and pick them up again when they finish their treatment," said Chen Kan, one of the staff at the subdistrict's pandemic control and prevention office.

"Since April 5, the bus has ferried 285 people. It expands its services as per patients' requirements. At first, it was only helping seniors who needed chemotherapy or hemodialysis. But now, we have also included children with severe illnesses. We also take residents who need prescription medicines from the hospitals," Chen added.

A patient, surnamed Guo, who suffers from uremia, called the vehicle their life bus.

"Many days, we have to drop them off at different hospitals. We work from daybreak to dusk," Chen said. "One session of hemodialysis treatment lasts for a long time, so uremia patients like Guo have to spend a long time in the hospital. The bus driver returns with the first batch of patients home and then heads back to fetch patients like Guo."

"During our early-stage survey, we found that quite a few seniors in our subdistrict receive periodic treatment in downtown hospitals. If they are held back by the pandemic, their condition might worsen," said Chen Xujing, chief of the pandemic control and prevention office of Yueyang Subdistrict.

The subdistrict then set up a 3-member medical transferring team; one in charge of transferring seniors to hospitals in the Songjiang District, the second helps with handling patients' chemotherapy or hemodialysis issues; and Chen Kan, the third member, is responsible for transferring the patients to downtown hospitals.

A similar measure has been adopted in Songjiang's Xiaokunshan Town.

The town launched a round-the-clock vehicle service to transfer cancer and uremia patients and pregnant women to hospitals. Five professional drivers and 21 part-time drivers took turns driving the 25 vehicles.

"We plan the routes ahead of time for better service and efficiency," said one of the managers.

By April 26, the line had helped 1,411 people receive various treatments, including hemodialysis, chemotherapy, canine injury, and pregnancy care.

Fan Jie, an officer from the investment department of Xiaokunshan Economic and Technology Development Co, was one of the drivers during the pandemic resurgence.

To help patients reach hospitals early, Fan would skip meals and drink as little water as possible to save toilet time.

In less than a month, Fan ran up his driving mileage to about 4,000 kilometers. Only six people could fit in his car at once, and they were going to hospitals all over the city.

"I had to use the navigation at first to reach hospitals like Zhongshan Hospital's Xuhui Branch, Huashan, Ruijin, Xinhua, and Shanghai Chest hospitals. Now I am familiar with the routes," said Fan.

Ti Gong

Yongfeng's prescription team delivers medicines

The medicine prescription squad of Songjiang's Yongfeng Subdistrict grew from ten members in mid-March to more than 30 within a month, assisting around 6,000 locals in prescribing medicine in both Songjiang and downtown Shanghai hospitals.

The average number of prescription orders was around 250, and the members had nearly met their goal of "prescribing drugs within two days."

They worked every day from 7am to 8pm, enquiring about medical needs, collecting health insurance cards, scheduling routes, prescribing medicine, sorting the medicine, and delivering it to residents.

"Initially, there were only a few locked-down neighborhoods in Songjiang, so we devised a broad strategy and prescribed more than 150 orders of medicine at once. As the number of locked-down communities expanded, we adjusted our method to match the unique needs of each community," Chen Kaixi, the squad's initiator, said.

They also implemented a phased medicine prescription mechanism, with Phase One consisting of the district's pharmacies ensuring basic supply, Phase Two consisting of community hospitals, Phase Three consisting of the district's central hospital, and Phase Four consisting of the Shanghai No.1 People's Hospital's South Branch and the Fangta Hospital.

"The phased strategy boosted our efficiency and benefited more residents," Chen explained.

The team also made every effort to recruit medical staff, community police, and pharmacists in the communities, and they worked in pairs to save time while giving medication.

Bags containing medicine were stored in the subdistrict office each day, and squad members sorted and delivered them.

"We always supply and process the medication as soon as we recommend it. Biomedicines that require freezing, such as insulin, would be delivered to residents as soon as we returned," explained one of the members.

Li Yao, the only male member of the prescription squad, would cross the Huangpu River to obtain Clonazepam tablets for people suffering from insomnia and mental health issues at the Tanghui Road mental health center. Li has assisted over 100 people suffering from mental illnesses. The squad would often visit the downtown Shanghai Mental Health Center to get some out-of-stock medication.

An elderly patient surnamed Li sought treatment at the downtown Changhai Hospital.

"I could get some reimbursement from the hospital, so could you please do me a favor?" asked Li.

Four members of the squad formed a "downtown team" to handle the needs of patients like Li.

"We would first inquire about the departments, then verify each hospital's WeChat account to ensure that outpatient service is available the following day. We would also assess the optimal routes and whether or not our nucleic acid test results had expired," explained one of the members.

Ti Gong

The busy long-distance bus drivers

Residents of neighboring Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province would have been surprised to see Songjiang buses on Ningbo roads recently. By April 24, 119 Songjiang Bus Company drivers had brought nearly 20,000 COVID-19 patients, close contacts, medical staff, and goods to Ningbo for quarantine and support.

The drivers had grown accustomed to a life of receiving orders around the clock, wearing impermeable protection gear for extended periods of time, running errands frequently, and missing meals.

Songjiang Bus Company deployed 88 coaches within 24 hours of receiving their first order on April 4. The drivers began their journey at 2am, arrived in Ningbo at 6am, and were on their way back to Songjiang at 9am. They relocated a total of 1,900 people that day.

The organization received another transfer task on April 6. Within 24 hours, 39 buses ran through villages and quarantine sites in Jiuting, Sijing, and Xinqiao towns, picking up the sick and transporting almost 1,000 people to Ningbo.

One of the bus drivers, Xue Jianzhong, was the first to apply for the enrolment.

"The sooner we start acting, the sooner we'll reach zero-transmission in communities and people will feel more at ease," Xue said.

Qian Changjun, a Party member, was a driver who moved over 500 passengers in three days. To save time using restrooms along the way, he just drank a small amount of water.

This time, Qian Yongjie, the company's safety manager, offered to drive. His hands were white after being encased in rubber gloves for an extended period of time.

The drivers would rigorously sterilize their buses after each trip. And their board and lodging were arranged at a specific hotel.

Ti Gong