Shanghai residents now have access to convenient and professional nursing services in their community, instead of having to travel to crowded district or city-level hospitals.
Services include dealing with wounds or other injuries, foot problems due to diabetes, and the care of catheters for patients with cancer or other blood disease.
Catheters are thin tubes inserted through a vein in the arm to help avoid the pain of frequent injections. They require careful care and monitoring and need to be checked weekly.
To expand grassroots medical facilities, Shanghai started to set up nursing centers in neighborhood health centers in 2023. So far, 84 centers have passed evaluation and started to offer services, Shanghai Health Commission said on Thursday.
All the 84 centers offer a range of basic nursing services. By September, these centers had offered 964,000 services.

A nurse at Pujin Neighborhood Health Center deals with a patient's foot problem.
Many centers perfect and add services in line with their own features and nearby residents' demand.
Officials from Pujin Neighborhood Health Center said it provides services for all kinds of acute and chronic wounds as well as dressing change and stitch removal for patients discharged after surgery. Its professionals also provide consultation and individualized treatment for patients with serious dermatitis and wound that are slow to heal.
Caojiadu Neighborhood Health Center said it has an online reservation service to offer serious patients catheter care at home, while Zhuanqiao nursing center offers special care for people with arthritis in their knees, with rehabilitation equipment and devices developed by its therapists.
The nursing centers don't just focus on the elderly. Tinglin Town Neighborhood Health Center offers nursing care for children with autism, ADHD, slow development as well as adults needing support with physical rehabilitation and nervous system diseases.

A nurse at Caojiadu Neighborhood Health Center checks a patient's catheter.
Source: Shanghai Daily