Protests by residents stop plan to build hospice opposite community
Print Edition
The Yangpu District government yesterday halted a plan to build a hospice center close to a residential community after it caused outrage among residents living nearby.
The district’s health authority had planned to build a hospice center with over 1,000 beds on the first to third floors of the 14-story Shuohe Business building on Yingkou Road.
But residents living nearby protested widely against the plan last month.
The authority will halt the plan temporarily and hold a public hearing to hear the residents’ complaints, said Chen Fenghua, deputy director of the district’s health and family planning commission. Chen said officials will also try to persuade residents to back the project for “public welfare.”
His remark caused another round of protests among residents yesterday with banners in the community voicing opposition against the plan.
The developer of the community had promised to build a shopping mall on the three floors of the building and turn all the other floors into offices, a representative of the residents told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
“We don’t object to the plan to build a hospice, but it must not be built in the community,” said the representative surnamed Chen.
Under the plan, the government hospice center will be built opposite the residential buildings of the community, which was objected by the residents who said they would be able to see the beds and dying patients through their windows.
The residents claim the developer has also decided to build a mortuary on the ground floor which was initially said to become a parking area.
“I’m afraid many stores for funeral services will open along the road at the entrance of the community,” a 40-year-old resident who declined to be named told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
She said the residents will organize more protests at night until the government agreed to abandon the plan.
Over 36,000 people die of cancer in the city every year and 70 percent of terminal patients need hospice care, according to the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission.
Shanghai started a hospice ward program in 2012 on a trial basis in 18 neighborhood health centers in all 16 districts and Chongming County.
Within three years, the city plans to establish hospice wards for patients with terminal cancer in all community hospitals and district and city-level hospitals to offer high-quality palliative care, according to the commission.
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