Volunteer doctors offer advice on how to boost medical services

Zhugqu county, located in a mountainous region, has poor transport links. So, moving patients to hospitals in larger cities is not possible. Reaching out to patients living in rural areas can be time-consuming.

Duan Zhongping, the vice-president of the Beijing You'an Hospital, suggests local hospitals should make use of the internet and build up remote consultation mechanisms.

Wang Shusheng, a urologist from the Guangdong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, wants local doctors to update their professional knowledge, as well as use WeChat, a popular Chinese social media platform, to reach other medical professionals.

To show how communication helps, Li Xiuhui from the Beijing You'an Hospital, who specializes in treating liver diseases with Chinese and Western medicines, shares how she dealt with a difficult case which she encountered in the course of her volunteer work.

She says she posted the case details on a WeChat group of medical professionals from Beijing, and received replies from three professionals within minutes, telling her how to deal with the situation and prevent it from getting worse.

Li says that hypertension and biliary calculus are common in the county, based on her observations.

And, in her opinion, another problem is that grassroots hospitals are especially short of general practitioners, a view shared by Chen Hao, the director of cardiovascular surgery at Chongqing General Hospital.

So, Li and Gao Zhaowang from the Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of TCM, think that TCM can help combat the shortage because TCM focuses more on integrated inner pathogenesis rather than specific outward symptoms.

Separately, Liu Ping, a veteran TCM doctor from Shanghai Shuguang hospital, believes that the rich resources of Chinese medicinal herbs in Gansu province can also provide a solution.

Liu Sandu, the vice-president of the People's Hospital of Qiannan (Bouyei and Miao autonomous prefecture) in Southwest China's Guizhou province, focuses on the training of local talent, especially graduates from vocational colleges, as a priority.

"The training of vocational school graduates will encourage them," says Liu, adding that improving the capability of nurses is also important.

As for the current state of medical facilities in the area, much has changed since landslides in Zhugqu claimed more than 1,700 lives in 2010.

Now, a lot of advanced facilities are in place thanks to outside help, but the lack of well trained personnel is an obstacle, says Liu Ping.

So, according to Lai Ruixiang, the deputy director of the county, Zhugqu has opened its doors to medical personnel, even with a polytechnic background, and is endeavoring to improve the incomes of these professionals.