Focus

Patients welcome medical iniatives but still want better service

By Qin Zhongwei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-27 07:51

Beijing's top public hospitals are opening high-standard medical consultation centers and providing specialized services to meet the growing needs of patients.

The General Hospital of Armed Police Forces, one of the foremost public hospitals in Beijing, opened its medical consultation center, in an independent 6,000 sq m building on May 11.

Besides 11 VIP patient rooms, 10 consultation rooms, 30 examination rooms, advanced and comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic facilities, the center also offers a premium service in which it invites at least three top doctors from other hospitals to assess the patient's disease and determine the treatment. Patients and their families can discuss with the specialists their treatment.

"So the patients will no longer need to go back and forth between different hospitals for appointments with different specialists," said Deng Xiaowei, director of the center.

Registration at the center costs 300 to 500 yuan.

Peking Union Medical College Hospital, founded in 1921, launched its first medical consultation center for patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases on May 12.

According to a survey by the hospital, about 60 percent of patients suffering from serious disease have to go to different departments to have their condition assessed.

The medical center will gather the hospital's top experts and doctors from different departments and fields to provide a comprehensive assessment to the patient.

Zhao Yupei, head of the hospital, told the media that this will "not only save patients' time and money, but also improve the collaboration of different departments and improve efficiency."

The consultation fee is between 500 and 800 yuan.

Although patients welcomed the initiatives, many believe these efforts are not enough to cater to the growing number of patients in the city.

Public hospitals in Beijing are currently undergoing intensive reform - a detailed reform plan will be released in the latter half of this year - but while patients are pleased that the public hospitals are upgrading their facilities and equipment to compete with private hospitals and clinics and foreign-invested hospitals, they also say the hospitals need to address their poor quality of service.

"I just feel the doctors and nurses in the public hospitals are surly and impatient. I often don't dare to ask them if I have question about my condition, or doubts about their assessments, maybe that is the most urgent area that the public hospitals should improve, not just the facilities," Li Pei, a 25-year-old IT worker told METRO.

CHINA DAILY

(China Daily 05/27/2010 page28)