STARTING in March, the Department of Dermatology of Huashan Hospital will no longer require all doctors to be at work by

8 am. Flextime - a flexible working schedule - has come to the hospital.

"We've tracked and recorded the patient flow and found the daily peak hours come at 10 am and 4 pm. So we assign more doctors during these periods, but fewer in other periods," said Dai Runming, spokesman of the hospital.

"The method has significantly shortened the waiting time for patients, and utilized the medical resources to the maximum."

Some doctors who begin work at 10 am may receive patients during the noon break. In the past, many patients who came to the hospital in the morning had to wait until the afternoon to be seen.

During a citywide meeting for all medical institutes held on April 26, the local health bureau promoted the flexible schedule model to other major hospitals.

The city's more than 600 hospitals received 9.25 million outpatients last year, 20 per cent of whom were from areas outside of Shanghai. Hospitals that are noted for their specialisms, such as Huashan's dermatology and No.6 People's Hospital's orthopedics departments, are facing the problems of large numbers of patients.

"The long waiting process has always been a complaint, mostly by patients concerned with medical service quality. Patients often have to wait for hours before consulting a senior doctor. This model would effectively solve the problem and improve the overall medical service," said Song Guofan, an official of the Shanghai Health Bureau.

Early this month, the Ministry of Health set improving hospital management as the major task for medical institutes and stressed the importance of improving medical service.

To achieve this goal, local hospitals will apply a series of measures such as setting payment spots on each floor, speeding up examinations, simplifying the process and assigning more senior doctors to receive more patients. Hu Yan