Beijing recently signed a framework agreement for coordinated development of medical and health services with Baoding, Hebei Province, following four previous projects between the Chinese capital and cities in its neighboring Hebei Province. A medical care circle around Beijing is taking shape.
According to the latest agreement, five Beijing-based Tertiary A hospitals will provide specialized medical support for five major hospitals in Baoding. Each hospital will receive assistance on two to four specialties from its collaborating hospital in Beijing for three to five years.
By 2020, the supported hospitals, with then significantly improved medical services as well as management with the help from Beijing, are expected to lead the formation of regional medical center for the benefit of local residents. Furthermore, the cooperation could be expanded to include more institutional initiatives such as departmental exchange, remote consultation, staff training, and easy referral.
Among the medical institutions, Beijing Children's Hospital has been supporting Baoding Children's Hospital since 2015. Tian Jian, director of Baoding Children's Hospital and assistant director of Beijing Children's Hospital, said medical experts from Beijing are dispatched to Baoding Children's Hospital on a daily basis to work as chief physicians and help with personnel training there. In 2016, more than 800 trips were made by medical professionals from Beijing Children's Hospital to Baoding. The number of daily outpatient visits in Baoding Children's Hospital increased from between 600 and 800 before the launch of the program to between 1600 and 1800 now.
Experts from Beijing will also be able to provide technical support around-the-clock through remote consultation in the future, Tian said.
Mao Yu, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission, said a “medical care circle” has been formulated with the medical cooperation between Beijing and Hebei. Patients from Hebei will be gathered to the circle, which will facilitate medical service delivery and cut transport and accommodations expenditure. The programs will also serve the purposes of enhancing the level of local medical services, relocating non-capital functions of Beijing, and alleviating traffic congestion in the capital.
Altogether 12 major hospitals in Beijing have taken part in the Beijing-Hebei medical cooperation, making 24,435 out-calls. A total number of 10,258 patients were received, and 510 consultations were held. A total of 118 referrals were made to Beijing and 313 to local hospitals. The proportion of Hebei patients released from Secondary-level or above hospitals in Beijing decreased from 9.1 percent in 2013 to 7.5 percent in 2016.