Established only days ago on Feb 16, the Zhuhai Cardiovascular Alliance, is already preparing its 10 member units for technical support, personnel training, and shared resources to be provided by Zhuhai People's (Renmin) Hospital (珠海市人民医院).

The alliance comprises Grade-III Class-A, all Grade-II, and the private Zhuhai Chancheng and Zhuhai Mingde hospitals.

Members having names prefaced with Zhuhai are People's, Women's & Children's, 5th People's, Xiangzhou District People's, High-Tech Zone People's (Guangdong No 2 Provincial People's), Doumen District Qiaoli Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and Xiangzhou District Second People's hospitals. Gaolan Port, and the Hengqin Outpatient Department of Zhuhai People's Hospital are also among them.

Plaques awarded

Together they provide a basic cardiovascular treatment system citywide. Soon, hospitals in Zhongshan City's Sanxiang and Tanzhou areas are expected to join the alliance as well.

A two-way referral system is being promoted. The system advocates the referral of seriously ill patients from low- to high-level health institutions, except in emergency; likewise, those with minor illnesses are referred back to lower-level hospitals.

The system has already been proven effective. Last year, the National Chest Pain Center built by Zhuhai People's Hospital received 2,000 patients including 403 with myocardial infarctions. Most were transferred from lower-level hospitals, according to Jiang Xiaofei, deputy director of the Cardiovascular Department at Zhuhai People's Hospital. Construction of the center began in 2016 while advanced technology was promoted at grass-roots hospitals.

High-quality cardiovascular surgery [Photos courtesy Nanfangplus]