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Beijing says medical services ready for Olympics

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-24 15:10

With only 15 days to go before the kick off of next month's Olympics, Beijing is now in full play to provide proper medical service for the Games.

A total of 3,223 medical workers were now in place and ready for service during the Games, Jin Dapeng, chief of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee's medical support group, said on Wednesday.

All Olympic venues and training centers would be provided with medical staff, said Jin, also the Party head of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau.

In total, 226 medical service stations are available at all Olympic venues in Beijing and co-hosting cities, with more than 5,000 experienced medical workers participating.

The hospitals in Beijing designated to serve the Games, 24 in total, had improved their service with standard bilingual signs, classified drugs, detailed emergency response plans and barrier-free facilities, Jin said.

He added a special software would be introduced to prevent doctors from giving prescriptions that may include stimulants. All medicine at Beijing hospitals had been checked, and those with stimulants had been tagged with warnings saying "not for athletes."

The health officials also vowed to monitor the daily health conditions of people working at Games' venues, non-competition facilities and Olympic-designated hotels.

The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau said it had updated its website to provide health information in English, French and Japanese.

The website will offer the city's general health conditions, latest health news, weekly reports on epidemics and information on designated hospitals.

Foreigners can also subscribe to regular e-mail reports on epidemics and health tips from the English-language website.

A handbook for emergency rescue in Beijing will be available in eight languages, including English, French, Japanese and German on the website.

The Beijing Times reported on Wednesday that ordinary purchasers of medicine might be asked to leave his or her phone number during the Olympics in a bid to easily trace the medicine in case of emergency.