医学联盟能更好地利用医疗资源

With the medical alliance being established, there will be a total of around 3,100 beds for inpatients within the alliance. The Beijing Chaoyang Hospital has 1,400 beds, and about 1,200 beds are from three other hospitals.

Chen Yong, executive director of the hospital, says the alliance is a way to share the burden of providing healthcare services.

"The medical institutions within the alliance can share beds; that is to say, we can transfer our patients with chronic conditions to the community clinics for rehabilitation, and patients with critical conditions can come to the larger hospitals. With that, the beds in community clinics will be better used, and so will ours."

Wang Kai suffered a brain injury years ago and recovered in Chaoyang Hospital. Now he attends rehab sessions at Beijing's Gaobeidian community clinic. Here, is his family member.

"The healthcare center is nearer to where we live. It's very convenient for us to come here to take care of him. Also, we spent at least 10,000 yuan every 20 days in large hospitals. However, it only costs us 5000 yuan here; it's much cheaper."

To get smaller clinics more involved in treating less-severe diseases and to encourage more non-severe patients to see doctors at community healthcare centers, Chaoyang Hospital has been sending doctors to community clinics.

Ji Heping, director of the Gaobeidian healthcare center, says that more patients will seek medical treatment at community clinics.

"With experts from the large hospital, we can learn a lot, and they can help improve the medical skills of our doctors in the clinic. As the community clinics are still in the initial stages, we really need experts from these prestigious hospitals to give guidance and help in improving our medical care services."

In addition, an online medical communication platform within the medical alliance has been established, making it possible for doctors at different hospitals to discuss treatment plans for patients. This means that clinic patients can get advice from doctors at top level hospitals.

Feng Guosheng, head of the Beijing Hospital Administration Bureau, says the alliance aims to make full use of the medical resources of top level hospitals. It can also develop the potential of the medical resources at clinics, making it more convenient for people seeking the medical treatment they need.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.