Simply by pressing a button on a phone for about 10 seconds, an old or disabled person at the Rongshi community in Harbin, capital of northernmost Heilongjiang Province, can now send an emergency message to a first aid center.
Dubbed a "health umbrella", this is the first free-aid hotline to operate in Harbin with an aim to provide help for the old or disabled if they face an emergency at home and have nobody around to help them.
Information on the person is fed into the computerized system's memory.
The data is divided into more than 20 special categories, including home address, name, sex, age, blood type, health history and phone numbers of the person's children.
All elderly and disabled people in Rongshi community also carry cards bearing their name, card number and a 96160120 aid phone number.
If they should fall ill unexpectedly away from home, people can seek help by dialing the phone number and telling the aid center the patient's card number. The system can instantly access their data.
The whole of Harbin city is expected to enjoy the service by mid 2003.
(Xinhua News Agency February 11, 2003)
