Hospice care to go citywide

All the city's neighborhood health centers will offer hospice care for the terminally ill from 2020, Shanghai Health Commission said on Thursday.

Districts will also set up hospice care centers to offer patient transfers within different levels of hospitals and technical support to relevant medical facilities. Private facilities are also being encouraged to offer services.

Shanghai began to offer hospice care on a trial basis in 2017 and Putuo District was one of the nation’s first batch of five areas to launch the service. Shanghai was announced as the only provincial region by the national government in May this year to launch hospice care in the second batch of trials.

“So far, 76 local facilities offer hospice care and some 200 facilities have registered for the service. There are about 900 beds for hospice care in medical facilities and about 700 beds at home, giving some 28,700 services,” said Yang Chao, a health commission official. 

Officials said hospice care is important to help terminal patients have a peaceful and pain-free experience in the last period of their lives life, ensure their quality of life and to support to both patients and their families.

By June, Putuo had 111 beds, offering hospice service for 351 patients in medical facilities and 42 at home in the first half of this year.