Patients in four neighborhood health centers in Shanghai's Pudong will find it easier to transfer to the larger Renji Hospital if they need more complex treatment.

The hospital on Monday signed an agreement with the health centers to streamline the patient transfer process, which used to take two or three days. Now it should take only two or three hours to move seriously ill patients.

The cooperation is in line with a rule issued by Shanghai Health Bureau to better use medical resources. Neighborhood centers treat chronic and minor illnesses while city hospitals take more complex cases.

And since Sunday, patients pay only half the cost of registration fees at district and city-level hospitals after being transferred from neighborhood clinics.

Zhou Zhennan, a 93-year-old man who suffered a stroke in 2005 and again in January this year, was sent to Renji Monday morning after developing symptoms of lung infection.

"We decided to transfer the patient to Renji soon after checking his situation, which is far more complicated than we can handle," said Zhang Shengbing, an official from Huamu Neighborhood Health Center. "Previously, the process would take two to three days because of paperwork, while the patient was settled down in Renji within two hours today through a 'green pathway' designed to ease the transfer."

Under the agreement, patients at neighborhood health centers can receive group consultations from experts in large hospitals. Patients are transferred to Renji if the case is complicated or if neighborhood doctors can't confirm the disease within three days.

People with confirmed chronic diseases or who need rehabilitation care after surgery at Renji will also be sent to neighborhood centers for further care.

"We have special doctors to take charge of patients transferred from the neighborhood and every department has an experienced doctor to visit the neighborhood to give direction," said Li Weiping, Reji's vice president.

"Doctors at neighborhood centers also receive regular training in Renji to improve their medical capabilities, especially in new treatments," she said.

(Shanghai Daily April 4, 2007)