The publicly-run Laoximeng Medical Service Centre revealed that more than 200 local residents have registered as club members, giving them the right to choose a doctor from the centre as their "personal physician."

"We currently mainly offer personal medical consultations and most of our club members are local senior citizens," said Wang Lifang, vice-president of the centre.

Each club member needs only to pay around 200 yuan (US$24) per year for the services, said Wang.

Song Guofan, a publicity official with the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau, said the city will extend the services to cover most downtown communities this year to help improve local citizens' health awareness.

Currently, there are more than a dozen public medical centres in Shanghai that have such clubs and provide personal medical consultations.

"With the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), we have seen it is all the more important to improve public awareness of health," said Song.

The city government plans to support the personalized services over the long-term, according to Song.

Insiders commented that there was still a long way to go before the average Shanghainese had access to their own physician as in some developed countries.

"What we are doing now is collecting information on each club member's health status and offering individualized medical consultations," said Wang.

"We usually give no medical treatment services," said Wang.

Club members registered at the hospital need to pay 6,800 yuan (US$822) to join, plus an annual fee of 3,200 yuan (US$387) per person.

(China Daily May 6, 2003)