Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    ENCOURAGED by the city government, five Shenzhen hospitals held ceremonies this week to welcome experienced doctors from home and abroad who will help improve the hospitals’ services by either offering guidance, conducting remote diagnosis, or collaborating on research.

    Prior to this, dozens of doctors from elsewhere were brought to Shenzhen hospitals thanks to a project launched by the city government in 2014 to encourage local hospitals to solicit the help of experienced doctors.

    Insiders said that the project may improve doctors’ skills, but in the short term will not alleviate Shenzhen’s need for more doctors.

    Dubbed “3R Project,” it aims to invest 100 billion yuan (US$15.26 billion) by 2020 to upgrade the city’s medical care.

    Residents have long complained about a shortage of medical resources in Shenzhen. Shenzhen’s number of hospital beds is 3.4 per 1,000 people and the number of doctors was 2.6 per 1,000 people at the end of last year, much lower than other top Chinese cities, and the city government hopes to raise them to 4.3 and 2.8 in 2020 respectively.

    In the past two days, Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital and Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital announced that they’ve brought in new doctors.

    On Wednesday, Shenzhen Children’s Hospital said it will cooperate with a team from Beijing Children’s Hospital as well as the Hospital for Sick Children, also known as SickKids, a teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto and the world’s second-largest hospital-based pediatric research facility following Boston Children’s Hospital.

    On the same day, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital said a renowned nursing team headed by Dr. Zhang Hongjun of Peking University No. 3 Hospital will enhance its nursing services, while Shenzhen People’s Hospital said it signed agreements with the country’s top ultrasound medical team led by Dr. Zhang Yun of Shandong University Qilu Hospital.

    Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital said it will cooperate with the rehabilitation medicine team of the First Affiliated Hospital with Nanjing Medical University, which the Shenzhen hospital said will promote hospital services to a new level.

    On Thursday, Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital said it will establish a liver transplant center with the help of Dr. Li Lanjuan of The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University.

    “We live in a period with major changes in medicine, particularly in oncology. The past was based on protocols designed to treat patients with the same diagnosis according a one-size-fits-all approach,” said Eric Bouffet of SickKids. “Today, medicine is becoming ‘precision medicine,’ based on the molecular characteristics and the results of various tests that make each patient unique with regard to his or her management. In my eyes, it is critical for hospitals to make this journey hand in hand.”

    Shenzhen is offering financial awards of up to 200 million yuan to experienced doctors and their teams working at Shenzhen hospitals part-time, but insiders say the 3R Project can’t greatly reduce the difficulty of residents seeing a doctor in the short term. They say the project will help train the current medical staff and improve their medical skills, but won’t bring enough new doctors to meet demand. Some also worry whether doctors from elsewhere can also offer services of the same quality in their own hospitals.

    “Medical resource shortages are inevitable and take time to relieve,” said Zhou Liping, a deputy director with the city’s health commission. “Demand for medical care rises quickly. For example, Shenzhen hospitals saw a 33-percent rise in outpatient visits and a 45-percent increase in inpatient cases between 2008 and 2013, in contrast to a 26-percent rise in the number of doctors. It’s a problem commonly seen elsewhere in China.”