Shanghai, China's largest metropolis, is forming a community medical network to cover the whole city, with half of its 95 small hospitals being re-structured to emphasize neighborhood health care.
Many Shanghai residents now can get various types of medical service for no more than a 15-minute wait at community hospitals, Shanghai-based "Wenhui Daily" reported Monday.
Weifang neighborhood medical center in the Pudong New District has established health records for all patients over age 60, the newspaper said.
For an annual fee of 50 yuan (about 6.02 US dollars), each family in the neighborhood is eligible for two medical check-ups for family members, on-going medical consultation and other services each year.
Statistics show that an urban employee in China earns 450 yuan a month on average.
In addition, residents in Shanghai may contact community doctors, equipped with beepers, at any time, the newspaper said.
Confronted with the issue of its aging society, the Shanghai municipal government started to focus on community hospitals for the residents' routine health care.
In the downtown neighborhood of Caojiadu, one third of the people over 60, or 21.4 percent of the 78,000 residents, suffer from different illness, particularly cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases, or cancer.
(Xinhua)
