Consultations offered to pregnant women

The fourth batch of medical workers from Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine Shenzhen Hospital poses for a picture before their first medical task in Futian’s lockdown areas on Sunday morning. Courtesy of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine Shenzhen Hospital

SEVERAL hospitals in Futian District have established online consultation groups to provide online consultation services for pregnant women in the district’s lockdown and control areas for COVID-19, with green channels open for those who require offline medical care.

In the district’s Shatou Subdistrict, where lockdown and control areas for COVID have been designated since Feb. 16, a WeChat consultation group for expectant mothers was set up Saturday, and the group’s members went up to over 300 the morning after it was created.

Ma Wenjun, a gynecologist at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine Shenzhen Hospital, was tasked with providing counseling services in the consultation group. Ma answered the questions of nearly 100 expectant mothers on her first day in the group.

“There are professional doctors and staff from the women’s federation behind me. My baby and I are taken care of,” a pregnant woman surnamed Chen said in the consultation group. (Shenzhen Daily)

“Even if the pregnant women in the group don’t ask about pregnancy and childbirth-related issues, I’ll help contact other doctors in the hospital to offer assistance, so that pregnant women’s psychological anxiety is relieved and their urgent problems are addressed,” Ma said.

For the last two days, Zeng Shijie, director of Futian District Maternity and Child Healthcare Hospital’s Huanggang Community Health Center, was busy sorting out the information of pregnant women in the community and assisting in creating a consultation group for 24-hour and one-on-one services for the community’s expectant mothers.

“There are hundreds of unread messages for help if you don’t look at your phone for 10 minutes,” Zeng said.

“On average, a doctor has to answer questions for 50 or 60 patients a day, and it takes at least five calls to address each patient’s medical needs, because we need to understand their condition, answer questions and help contact the ambulance,” Zeng explained.

Separately, on early Sunday morning, Futian mobilized an additional 170 medical workers from hospitals across the district to assist in Shatou Subdistrict’s COVID prevention and control.

According to Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine Shenzhen Hospital, the hospital has dispatched four batches of 172 medical workers to Futian’s lockdown areas to carry out anti-epidemic work. (Shenzhen Daily)