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July 10, 2010

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'Call an ambulance, not staff'

FOLLOWING the death of two students in Nanjing, education officials in Shanghai are encouraging students to call an ambulance instead of school medical staff in an emergency.

This was because first-aid treatment is not included in the duties of school medical staff, according to China's health regulations.

A Shanghai Education Commission official said yesterday that according to the regulations, the duties of school medical staff only included monitoring students' heath, offering health education courses, improving hygiene and preventing and treating common diseases.

A male sophomore at Nanjing University of Post and Telecommunications in Jiangsu Province died of heatstroke when taking a final exam on Tuesday.

Media across the country accused the university's medical staff of unprofessional conduct by arriving 25 minutes after the incident with an empty oxygen cylinder.

Another student died when taking a shower at a university in Nanjing on June 22. School medical staff arrived 20 minutes after the accident.

Luo Qian, an official with Fudan University, said the university encouraged students to call 120 for an ambulance first when an emergency occurred, even though the school had a team of professional doctors as medical staff.

She said the priority of medical staff was to offer health consultation and other educational services.

An official surnamed Chong with the Shanghai Education Commission said that although first-aid treatment was not among the main duties of school medical staff, many local universities hired professional doctors to do the job, who also had a good command of emergency treatments.

Chong said all medical staff had to receive training courses offered by local heath bureau every year.

The training includes basic emergency treatment.

She said the problem facing school medical staff at some local universities was not insufficient skills, but poor medical equipment.

Fang Yuan, a former student at Shanghai International Studies University, said she didn't know the hotline of the school medical staff and had never considered calling them when feeling sick.

She urged students to learn first-aid themselves and when emergencies occurred, to immediately call 120.


 

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