Patients bemoan long wait to see a doctor
More than half of outpatients at Shanghai’s leading public hospitals had to wait at least two hours to be seen last year. For some the wait was over four hours, according to a survey of the city’s health facilities.
The figures were up on the previous year.
About 60 percent of patients at leading comprehensive hospitals and 65 percent of patients at leading professional hospitals waited at least two hours, compared to 57 percent and 60 percent the year before. About 13 percent of patients spent four hours at leading comprehensive hospitals and 18 percent at leading professional hospitals, compared to the previous year’s 10 percent and 13 percent.
Waiting too long was the issue of most concern to patients, according to a survey covering 96 public health facilities released yesterday.
It also found that consultations were shorter. The average time for a first visit was down from 2017’s 6.7 minutes to 2018’s 4.8 minutes. This means patients are waiting longer to see a doctor but then spending less time with one.
The survey by the Shanghai Medical Ethos Association and Fudan University’s School of Public Health interviewed 18,085 patients.
Overall, however, satisfaction with local public hospitals improved, while neighborhood health centers scored the highest marks.
Waiting times, high medical bills and dirty toilets were of most concern to outpatients, the survey found, while food and medical bills were what bothered patients who had to stay in hospital.
Even though hospitals have adopted measures such as online reservations, the large number of people visiting leading hospitals out of habit for any complaint and their lack of trust in lower level hospitals contributed to the waiting time issue, according to the survey.
“We always have three or four people accompany my mother to Shanghai Cancer Center for chemotherapy once every two weeks. Each person goes to a different queue in order to shorten the waiting time,” said Mao Haiying, a local resident. “It is the only solution under complicated procedures and a large number of patients.”
Que Di, the survey’s chief researcher, said Shanghai was the city with the largest number of patients from other provinces. Some leading hospitals received over 10,000 patients a day, hence the long waiting times, she said.
“A classified health system that encourages patients to visit district-based hospitals or neighborhood health centers for common and chronic diseases should be worked out,” she said.
Local hospitals are trying various measures to reduce waiting times.
Yang Xinchao of the Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital said it had adopted an Internet-based system to allow patients to register, make reservations, queue, pay, check reports and even take care of parking through their smartphones.
“We specially developed an app to allow patients to take their numbers and queue for blood checks to reduce waiting times. It received very good feedback,” she said.
Zhou Jia, president of Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, said the hospital allowed patients to be treated first and pay later. It also offers free delivery of medicines after out-patient services to help save patients’ time.