CCTV News: When you are sick, you are unaccompanied to the hospital for treatment, you will not register or scan the code to pay... In life, these medical problems have troubled many elderly people. In order to solve this problem, an emerging profession called accompaniment physician has appeared in many places. Can they fundamentally solve the problem of "difficulty in seeing a doctor" for the elderly? Let’s take a look at the reporter’s investigation together.

Clinician: "temporary family members" who accompany the elderly to seek medical treatment

The elderly Wang Fengqi, who lives in Beijing, is 70 years old. He often goes to the hospital for medical treatment due to physical reasons. His son sometimes cannot accompany her to the hospital because of busy work. Recently, the old man's son made an appointment with her to accompany her from the Internet.

Xiao Qin turned out to be a nurse. At work, she saw the elderly’s need for accompanying patients, so she changed her career and became a accompanying physician, accompanying the elderly to register and do examinations throughout the process like her family.

Three major concerns plaguing the elderly. The accompanying clinic market needs to be regulated.

The reporter found in the interview that due to the lack of unified regulations, the service quality of accompanying clinic companies is uneven. Worrying about encountering medical care providers, fear of being cheated of money, and fear of not being professional enough has become three major concerns for elderly people to accompany their medical treatment.

Many measures have been introduced to standardize medical assistance and accompanying the elderly

In order to standardize medical assistance and accompanying the elderly, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and multiple departments issued measures last year, proposing to "cultivate professional medical assistance organizations and teams to provide medical assistance services for the elderly, medical assistance services such as registration and medical assistance, medical accompaniment, and agency payment." Various places have also standardized the management of the accompanying physician industry through different models. In February this year, the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau issued the "Shanghai Medical Assistance Service Pilot Plan". According to the plan, some pilot areas implement the accompanying clinicians with certificates, and pilot areas have established a accompanying appointment platform to facilitate appointment services for the elderly and their families.

Explore volunteer services to help medical treatment "last mile"

In addition, some places are also exploring the development of various forms of volunteer services, recruiting volunteers to provide accompanying services to elderly people in need. In Changzhou, Jiangsu, some hospitals adopt a point relay accompanying consultation model, setting up volunteer positions at registration, payment, inspection and other locations, and relay provides full-process accompanying consultation services for the elderly in need.