THE long lines of vehicles in front of Shenzhen’s hospitals have long been a vexing headache for hospitals, transportation departments and mostly, patients and their families.

    In response to traffic congestion at the entrance of hospitals, the Shenzhen Municipal Transport Commission organized a forum at the Book City CBD store Tuesday afternoon. Guests and experts were invited to discuss possible solutions to reduce traffic around hospitals.

    Two of the solutions might be carried out soon, according to the commission. New hospitals to be built will include more parking with the current 1:1 ratio of beds to parking spaces being increased to 1:1.8.

    There are currently 1,077 parking spaces at Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, 850 at Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, 580 at Shenzhen People’s Hospital and 540 at Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital, according to Li Dingzhi, the deputy director of the city’s traffic police bureau.

    “The hospitals really don’t have enough parking spaces for all of the patients and their families,” said He Kejian, deputy director of the city’s medical resources management center. More parking spaces will be incorporated into the soon-to-be-built hospitals, according to He.

    Meanwhile, the hospitals might increase parking fees to stop people who are not going to see doctors or visit patients from taking up the parking spaces. Special drop-off lanes might also be adopted at hospitals to divert those vehicles.

    Most of the hospitals’ parking lots would be full by 7:30 or 8 a.m., and the cars that come later would normally have to wait for one or two hours on the road, congesting lanes on the main roads, according to a person in charge of the transport commission.

    The commission pledged it would consider improving the public transportation system around hospitals so that patients who are going to see doctors can get to their appointments on time. (Zhang Qian)