Locked-down foreign patients grateful for online medical service
International and private medical facilities are playing an important role amid the recent COVID-19 resurgence in Shanghai by offering service to foreigners, who are quarantined or locked down at home or hotels.
Medical facilities are using Internet service to provide health instructions, prescription medicine and online psychological guidance.
Officials from SinoUnited Health, a private medical facility, said it has served more than 1,000 foreign patients through its virtual clinic, which mainly provides chronic disease guidance and medicine prescription, drug delivery and consultation.
Dr Yan Siyu recalled a regular patient with hypertension who expressed his anxiety after his community was locked down during the recent grid screening.
He was worried about his health if he ran out of medicine, Yan noted.
"He reserved an online service with me. After checking his previous medical record and talking with him online, I prescribed some medicine. I also arranged drug delivery for the patient, who expressed gratitude," Yan said.
Dr Zhang Hongxia, a psychiatrist at SinoUnited Health, said that seeing a doctor's face on video during online consultation is also a kind of relief and support for patients, who are quarantined. It is also helps to stabilize their mood and health condition.
A foreigner talks to his doctor through Internet medical service.
