The local medical community needs to set up a proper system for treating people with brain injuries, as many such patients are sent to hospitals that can't treat their injuries, causing delays that could prove fatal, doctors said at a national brain injury seminar in the city yesterday.

Injuries, such as those received in car accidents, are the fourth most common killer in the world, following cardiac vascular diseases, tumors and infectious diseases. About 100,000 people die of brain injuries in China every year, and that number is growing along with the number of private cars on domestic streets.

"The system for transferring patients, performing surgery and prescribing medication are very irregular in China, which just introduced its first medical guideline for treating brain injuries three years ago," said Dr Jiang Jiyao of the neurosurgery department at Shanghai's Renji Hospital. "However, only 1 percent of Chinese hospitals have adopted this direction.

(Shanghai Daily May 20, 2005)