East China's Zhejiang Province plans to launch an Internet-plus nursing program to offer convenient door-to-door services to patients, according to a guideline Friday.
The program is expected to cover 31 services including eldercare, rehabilitation nursing and long-term care, it said.
According to the guideline, the program will provide home-based health care to patients who have difficulty walking and will also establish an online nursing specialist clinic to offer nursing instruction and health consultation to those in need.
To protect the safety of door-to-door nurses, the guideline proposed a complete system for safety precautions with medical liability insurance for every nurse.
The program in Zhejiang is part of China's Internet-plus nursing program that is piloting from February to December.
Under the program, approved medical institutions can send nurses who have at least five years of clinical nursing experience to communities or homes to serve patients who are too old or restricted by their diseases to move.
Besides Zhejiang, six provincial-level regions across the country -- Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong -- have been chosen for the pilot program.
Need for home nursing care has rapidly increased in China. According to official figures, the population aged 60 or above in China has reached 250 million. Senior people with chronic diseases accounted for 65 percent of the total senior population.
