Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    EIGHTEEN Shenzhen hospitals formed a treatment network over the weekend to coordinate in the receiving and treating of patients suffering from heart attacks in order to increase efficiency.

    The hospitals, selected by the city’s health commission based on their equipment and capacity to handle such cases, are the first batch of hospitals to be included in the program, which is expected to expand later to include hospitals that have the ability to treat less acute heart problems, according to Liu Qiang, director of the cardiology department of Shenzhen Sun Yat-sen Cardiovascular Hospital, which initiated the program.

    “There are an estimated 20,000 Shenzhen residents suffering from myocardial infarction every year, but only about 1,500 of them received timely and proper treatment,” said Liu. “Many patients were brought in too late.”

    Mapping the recognized hospitals, on the one hand, will educate residents about the best way to save a patient, and on the other hand, will greatly reduce the time that is lost in transit and diagnosis, Liu said.

    The average time between when a Shenzhen patient shows symptoms of a heart attack and when the patient receives proper treatment is 120 minutes, but with the mapping program, the time is expected to decrease to less than 90 minutes, Liu said.

    Xie Peiyi, director of the cardiology department of Shenzhen Nanshan District People’s Hospital, another hospital included on the map, said: “People usually don’t recognize the symptoms of a heart attack and a lot of time is lost there. Some of them are taken to hospitals that may not be primed to handle such cases. Instead of immediate intervention, patients are subjected to a number of tests.”

    The map itself, according to Xie, will be a great way to educate the public about how to save heart attack patients, in addition to optimizing the use of medical resources through the coordination of the hospitals.

    However, the selected hospitals, including Shenzhen People’s Hospital, the Southern Medical University Shenzhen Hospital and Shenzhen Luohu District People’s Hospital, are mainly located in city centers. In most parts of the Bao’an, Dapeng and Pingshan, there are no such hospitals.

    Liu said that the program is expected to expand next year to include more hospitals capable of treating heart diseases.