Pediatrician Yang Yang checks a child at Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center in Guangdong province in January. ZHANG ZIWANG/FOR CHINA DAILY The National Health Commission will step up efforts to improve local pediatric healthcare and enhance the role of information technologies, in a move to deal with straining pediatric services across the country. In a statement posted on its website recently, the commission replied to a political adviser who suggested more medical resources be channeled to address issues in pediatric services, which feature long waits and insufficient time for face-to-face consultations. Methods proposed by the adviser include encouraging child patients to make their first consultations for a new illness at a community-level clinic, and to establish a digital platform that shares information on medical appointments and test results between different levels of medical institutions. In response, the commission said new services have been launched in recent years to reduce waiting hours and avoid long queues formed at hospitals. High-level hospitals across the country are now offering appointments that enable patients to take time slots for a range of examinations via websites, mobile phones or apps, it said. Meanwhile, a preliminary system dedicated to promote remote health care services has been established, which so far covers at least 22 provinces, 1,800 counties and 13,000 medical institutions in China. With the advancement of digital services in the medical sector, 4,100 hospitals are now able to push notifications and offer information to target patients, and 27,77 medical institutions now accept mobile payments. The next step, according to the commission, will see an increasing amount of resources invested in medical services targeting children, such as establishing more pediatric departments at smaller medical institutions and to improve services of existing pediatric hospitals. Information technology also is expected to play a larger role, as the commission will push for a higher proportion of online appointments and spread knowledge on disease prevention and healthcare through digital platforms. custom bar braceletcustom sports braceletscustom logo wristbandsde securite pour personne ageeembossed wristbandscolorfilled wristbandsembossed printed wristbandsdual layer wristbands
The first batch of cross-boundary vehicles on Wednesday left the Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities to drive on the world's longest cross-sea bridge.The 55-km bridge connects China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) in the east and the Macao SAR and Zhuhai of Guangdong Province in the west.The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge is the result of nine years of construction.The bridge officially opened to public traffic at 9:00 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) on Wednesday, as the first batch of travelers entered the service hall for customs clearance.At 9:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT) the first batch of cross-border buses full of passengers, as well as other vehicles hit the road on the bridge for Macao or Zhuhai on the other ends of the Y-shaped bridge.Without the bridge, drivers from Hong Kong, which faces Zhuhai across the Lingding Channel had to detour via several cities including Shenzhen and Dongguan to reach Zhuhai and other cities in the western part of Guangdong.Crossing the mega bridge is a bucket list experience for many residents. A Hong Kong resident surnamed Lee in his 70s was one of them. He got up early on Wednesday to take the first bus to ride on the bridge, only to catch a glimpse of the grand project.The bridge will slash road travel time from Hong Kong to Macao and Zhuhai remarkably.A Hong Kong resident surnamed Wong works in Macao and has to commute between Hong Kong and Macao regularly. He usually takes ferries, as road travel would take about three hours.But the new bus service via the bridge will take less than an hour and the ticket is cheaper, and he plans to take it as a key commuting alternative in the future, Wong said.
