By Shang Ban (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-12-13 07:43

SHANGHAI: This city's 12320 public health hotline launched a new English language service over the weekend to give expatriates equal access to medical counseling.

The move represents the debut of bilingual services on the national network, which covers 29 cities in nine provinces around China.

Shanghai's hotline has been up and running for a year and recently incorporated its AIDS prevention hotline.

The Ministry of Health launched the public health hotline system in 2003 in the wake of the SARS outbreak.

Officials used it to release information about the epidemic and other public health issues. People have also been encouraged to use the line to report cases of infectious diseases.

Shanghai's 24-hour hotline has an integrated network covering voice messages, e-mails, fax and call services. It can provide counseling on issues such as medical treatments, preventing infectious diseases and food safety, as well as public health laws and regulations.

Residents are also entitled to lodge complaints about emergency measures in the public health sector or report health-related crimes.

Yang Ye, who works for a Shanghai-based foreign commercial services firm, said the move shows the city is committed to meeting the needs of foreign people living there.

According to the Shanghai municipal health bureau, the hotline will employ 31 operators and a counseling team of about 100 doctors, experts and clinical physicians.

Over the year, it has received over 140,000 phone calls, equivalent to about 400 a day.