Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    SHENZHEN’S only children’s hospital is expected to receive a record number of emergency patients next spring as the number of second children being born continues growing following a policy change, the hospital’s president said, calling for attention to the sustained shortage of pediatricians in the city.

    “Since the implementation of the second-child policy, attention has been given to the pressure on the city’s obstetric services, but soon people will find that the pressure on pediatricians will be even bigger,” Zhong Shan, president of Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, said earlier this week.

    Zhong said there will be an obvious increase in the number of newborns in the city at the end of this year as the new policy was implemented Jan. 1. Babies around 6 months old are more prone to illnesses as the maternal antibodies they got from their mothers decay and their immune system hasn’t formed yet. Zhong also cited seasonal outbreaks of influenza and hand-foot-mouth disease for his estimates.

    “The number of emergency patients we’re receiving now is already the largest among Shenzhen hospitals,” said Zhong. “We sometimes receive more than 1,000 emergency patients between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. And the doctors are overworked, receiving 30 to 40 percent more outpatients on the weekends.”

    The hospital received 1.88 million emergency patients last year, and Zhong expects the number will reach 2.05 million this year.

    “My biggest wish is to solve the problem of the shortage of pediatricians,” said Zhong. “We visited 18 provinces last year to recruit doctors, but in the end we only found 18 qualified applicants willing to come to the city to work. But they couldn’t start receiving patients until undergoing training that usually takes a few years.”

    Shenzhen had 1,922 pediatricians at the end of 2015, and there were prominent cases of pediatricians quitting their jobs due to being overworked. Zhong hopes that the government will give preferential policies to attract more pediatricians.

    The hospital has formed an alliance with 36 Shenzhen hospitals in July to encourage patients to seek medical services at their nearby hospitals to alleviate doctors’ pressure.

    More pregnant women

    THE number of pregnant women with Shenzhen hukou soared by 71.23 percent between January and November this year, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

    Statistics from the Shenzhen Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital showed that the number of pregnant women registered with hospitals in Shenzhen grew by 17.98 percent, while the number of expectant mothers with Shenzhen hukou soared by 71.23 percent.

    Meanwhile, the number of new mothers with Shenzhen hukou, who gave birth to babies in the city, increased by 42.45 percent between January and November this year. However, the death rate of expectant mothers in Shenzhen also saw an upward trend over the past year.

    The hospital’s head, Yao Jilong, said that the growing death rate was related to the increasing number of pregnant women of an older age. He said that since the two-child policy was implemented, many post-1970 and post-1980 women have gotten pregnant, but they are at a higher risk of developing complications during pregnancy. (Zhang Yang)