Shanghai residents have turned to the Internet for voluntary medical care as strict city restrictions on COVID-19 impose restrictions on access to health care and spark despair and anxiety.
As the city of 25 million people has resorted to lockdowns and extensive diagnostic tests to fight coronary heart disease, those with other illnesses are posting calls for help on mutual aid platforms and social media chat groups.
One woman says she sought help online as her concern grew over the risk of her paralyzed mother becoming infected with a catheter she has been using for about a month.
“It usually takes ten minutes to replace the catheter, but the nearby hospital we go to is now sealed,” said the woman, who only wanted to reveal her last name, Zhou.
According to her, about five hospitals rejected it as the departments that carry out this procedure have suspended their operation.
Even when treatment is available some patients say they have not been able to access transportation or get permission to leave the housing estates where they live.
It is also difficult to find accurate information about the services offered by each hospital, other patients told Reuters.
While the government of China’s financial capital appealed to hospitals in March to find a solution for patients not suffering from COVID but facing urgent needs such as dialysis or cancer treatment, many are still struggling to access health care.
Volunteers intervened to help.
One volunteer, who uses the name Amy, says one patient received detailed instructions on how to overcome bureaucratic hurdles, cross the Huangpu River, which splits Shanghai in two, and be hospitalized on the other side. to receive treatment.
A program created by college students has garnered about 1,600 requests for help, but recently that number dropped to about 50 new requests from nearly 200 a week ago, suggesting that access to health services is improving, the author explains. while maintaining his anonymity as coronavirus is a sensitive issue in China.
While China, which is ruled by the Communist Party, has a troubled relationship with civil society organizations operating outside the official channels, authorities do not appear to have intervened to assist in accessing health care in Shanghai. .
Unofficial networks have been involved in the past, for example by offering online help to find antiviral drugs in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the start of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Asked to comment on recent such actions, the Shanghai authorities responded by posting an article in support of COVID controls by the city’s largest Communist Party-backed volunteer group, which has been in operation since 1997.
Although Zhu’s mother’s condition has not yet been resolved and many medical resources are beyond the reach of volunteer groups, many have been helped by using the internet.
A man, Pei, who was struggling to get medicine for his cancer father, says a volunteer added him to a chat group, which indicated which pharmacy could supply him with the medicine, and then members of that group helped. to transport the medicine across the Huangpu River.
SOURCE: AMPE
Source: Capital
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