(Photo by sznews.com)

Liu Minxia

mllmx@msn.com

Hospital goers will need to bring their identification cards with them while visiting seven hospitals in Shenzhen as a provincial pilot program requires real name registration for non-emergency hospital services in an attempt to improve overall health care services.

Forty-one hospitals in Guangdong Province, including seven in Shenzhen, are chosen to pilot real name medical services before the end of the year. The seven Shenzhen hospitals are University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital, Shenzhen Children's Hospital, Shenzhen Guangming New Area People's Hospital, Shenzhen Yantian District People's Hospital, Shenzhen Futian District People's Hospital, Shenzhen Longgang District Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital, and Shenzhen Futian District No. 2 People's Hospital.

University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital has been requiring real name registration since it was opened in 2012. Other hospitals are adapting their services to the new program.

"We're preparing the system for real name registration and expect to launch it in mid-August," said Cong Min, director of Shenzhen Children's Hospital's outpatient department. "After the system is launched, children's medical records will contain information including their parents' names, home addresses, and school names, many of which couldn't be changed once they are put in. We expect it to efficiently prevent scalpers from selling appointment quotas."

Hospital goers need to provide their identification information, including real name, gender, identification card/passport number, and date of birth, when making an appointment with any of the seven hospitals. They need to bring their identification cards or passports with them while visiting the hospital.

Children who don't have identification cards can make the registration with their parents' identification cards and once they obtain their identification, they are required to update the information with the hospitals.

Previously family members often use each others' medical insurance for hospital visits and under one patient's name, there are often medical records of several people.