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Nursing apps spring up

Writer: Zhang Qian  | Editor: Lily A  | From:  | Updated: 2018-06-21

A NEW kind of online service, door-to-door nursing, is springing up and becoming popular among Shenzhen families, but experts said that the online service needs more regulations and guidelines, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

The door-to-door nursing services can be ordered via smart phone apps. There are currently over 10 such apps available, mainly covering nursing services like injections, blood transfusions, medication refills, catheterization and postnatal care.

A resident in Nanshan District who wasn’t identified said that she had been ordering nursing services online since February for her 80-year-old mother who requires catheterization.

“After we made an order online, the nurse would come to my mother’s home to provide services for her, but the expense was higher than services provided at hospitals,” said the resident. Each door-to-door catheterization service cost 189 yuan (US$29.25), according to the woman.

Although the service is not cheap, the woman said it has made taking care of her elderly mother much easier, because she does not have to help her down the stairs or wait in the long lines at the hospital.

One of the apps requires users to fill in basic information, and when ordering the “transfusion service,” the app showed that there were more than 20 nurses in Shenzhen who could provide the service.

The information on the app showed that the nurses worked at public hospitals or some community medical clinics. One of the most popular nurses had already been booked 397 times, according to the report.

Yu Cong, a senior nurse with Shenzhen No. 2 People’s Hospital, said that the emergence of such apps shows the great demand for professional nursing services. “It is a good thing for some capable, experienced or retired nurses to provide door-to-door services to more families through these online platforms,” said Yu.

According to relevant policies and regulations in Guangdong Province, registered nurses can conduct medical operations at multiple sites besides the medical institutions where they are employed, so such online services are legal operations, said Wu Huiping, head of the Shenzhen Nurse Association.

Wu also said that many hospitals actually encourage their nurses to use their spare time to provide medical services.

However, the report also pointed out that different apps have various charging standards and require different information from users.

A customer service staffer with one of the apps told the newspaper that their charging standard was made based on Beijing’s market price, and was not adjusted for the Shenzhen market.

Similarly, another app requires users to upload a doctor’s prescriptions, while some others only require basic information, such as a home address, an ID card number and description of medical needs.

Additionally, if medical accidents or disputes occur, issues of responsibility will remain uncertain because there is not yet a set of rules defining whether or not the app developers are considered medical institutions.

One of the apps responded by saying that the medication used by patients is provided by themselves, and the nurses are only providing the medical services, so conflicts do not arise often.

However, Wu said that government departments must regulate such medical services to ensure the safety and rights of both patients and nurses.