Source: CCTV news client
Recently, public opinion has reported that some places are short of medical resources and people have difficulty in seeking medical treatment. On December 14th, the State Council Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held a press conference, and Jiao Yahui, Director of the Department of Medical Administration of the National Health and Wellness Commission, responded to the relevant situation.
Jiao Yahui introduced that in recent years, the demand for diagnosis and treatment of fever clinics has increased rapidly, and the contradiction between supply and demand is more prominent. However, the growth rate of medical service demand for general outpatient and inpatient services is relatively slow, and the utilization rate of corresponding medical resources is now in a safe and controllable range. The National Health and Health Commission has also taken a series of measures in view of the prominent demand for diagnosis and treatment of fever clinics and the rapid growth.
First, further expand the supply of medical resources and medical services. We require all hospitals above the second level and primary medical and health institutions to open fever clinics or fever clinics, and we have been vigorously promoting this matter recently. According to statistics, as of 12: 00 on December 14th, there were more than 14,000 fever clinics in hospitals above the second level in China, and more than 33,000 fever clinics or consultation rooms were set up in primary medical and health institutions. While increasing the number of fever clinics or fever clinics, we also further simplify the flow of fever clinics. The vast majority of patients go to the fever clinic mainly to prescribe drugs to treat COVID-19’s related symptoms, and many places have also set up simple clinics for fever clinics to further improve service efficiency. According to statistics in some places, the average time to see a fever clinic has been shortened from more than 4 hours at the beginning to less than 40 minutes. In addition, medical institutions in various places are also increasing the expansion and transformation of critical care resources in designated hospitals, sub-designated hospitals, and hospitals above the second level, as well as the increase of critical care beds in tertiary hospitals, the provision of equipment, the training of medical personnel, and the expansion and transformation of convertible ICU, all of which are in full swing. All 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China have formulated corresponding plans and arranged funds. These tasks are also in the process of promotion and implementation.
The second measure is to promote graded diagnosis and treatment. On the one hand, in cities, medical associations are used as carriers, and in rural areas, county medical associations are used as carriers to promote the graded diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 and other medical services. Let the urban and rural tertiary networks and medical institutions implement their respective functional positioning. Health monitoring is mainly implemented at the grassroots level, especially the health monitoring and health management of key populations; Secondary hospitals provide technical support in all aspects of technology and manpower to meet the needs of general diagnosis and treatment; Tertiary hospitals focus on meeting the needs of diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients. Through graded diagnosis and treatment, we build a reasonable and orderly medical order.
The third measure is to vigorously promote Internet medical services. Through Internet medical treatment, according to the diagnosis and treatment plan and the guide of home treatment, we will prescribe corresponding prescriptions for patients with COVID-19’s symptoms, and provide corresponding drugs through offline third-party distribution. At the same time, we also require medical institutions to provide 24-hour online consultation and medication guidance, as well as time-sharing appointment services. In this way, the instantaneous peak of medical institutions can be reduced, the gathering of people can be reduced, and the risk of cross-infection when people go to the hospital offline can be reduced.
Fourth, continuously optimize the process of fever clinic, general clinic and hospitalization. By optimizing the medical treatment process, it will provide greater convenience for the broad masses of people to go to medical institutions for medical treatment.
Jiao Yahui said that in the next step, we will further guide medical institutions at all levels in various places to continuously implement relevant measures, and use various methods and measures to expand the supply of medical resources and medical services to better meet the needs of the people for medical treatment.
(CCTV reporter Shi Yingchun and Huang Zhenglong)
