Leading hospital brings high-quality services closer to home
A medical cluster with features of combined Western and traditional Chinese medicine has been established in the Waigaoqiao area, giving patients high-quality services near to home.
Led by the city-level Shanghai 7th People's Hospital, the cluster consists of six neighborhood health centers which will allow some 800,000 residents living in the region access to high-quality medical services within a 15-minute walk.
"Our doctors will do regular patient checks at the wards of the grassroots hospitals or through online checks to give instructions. All patient information in the cluster is shared within the system for long-term management and health education," said Dr Hu Dan, vice president of Shanghai 7th People's Hospital, the only city-level hospital featuring Western and traditional Chinese medicine in the Pudong New Area.
Experts from Shanghai 7th People's Hospital go to neighborhood health centers to check hospitalized patients and teach grassroots medics.
"The practice in all hospitals in the cluster is to the same standard. Experts from the city-level hospital serve in the grassroots regularly, do hospital patients checks, offer group consulting for complicated cases and medical education to enhance capability of neighborhood health centers," he said. "Patients in a serious condition will be transferred to the city-level hospital quickly through a special channel."
The 7th hospital also helps each neighborhood health center to establish their own special features. The joint ward of 7th hospital and Gaohang neighborhood health center focuses on rehabilitation and post-surgery care, while Puxing neighborhood health center offers Pudong's first grassroots multidisciplinary TCM clinic.
Currently, 7th hospital has sent 34 experts to set up clinics at neighborhood health centers with features such as acupuncture, kidney disease, joint disease, gynecological disease and sleeping disorder. They lead grassroots doctors to carry out acupuncture and peritoneal dialysis, filling the blanks in grassroots health services, establishing TCM services in the neighborhood and cultivating grassroots medics.
Experts from Shanghai 7th People's Hospital offer online instruction to grassroots doctors.
