Cross-Strait medical hotline!!

The China Post August 30, 2011 A cross-Taiwan Strait medical emergency hotline will soon be officially launched in order to provide an open and direct channel of communication for visitors of the two sides when encountering medical emergencies during travel. The hotline phone number 79595 will be available by the end of this year to offer a joint platform in offering emergency medical services to Taiwanese and Chinese travelers in need when they are traveling across the strait, said Huang Ming-he (黃明和), secretary-general of local Cross-strait Health Care and Leisure Activities Association, yesterday in a press conference in Taipei. Huang said that currently both Taiwan and China have their own emergency medical care systems, but that the two are interlinked and with the increasing volume of travelers between the two sides, it is a priority to establish a joint system soon. The fatal train accident that killed five Chinese visitors in central Taiwan's Alishan in April and the recent tour bus disaster in China's Jilin Province killing four Taiwanese earlier this month both serve as examples to prove the importance of the joint emergency platform, Huang said.　Once an accident occurs, victims and their families can contact private and governmental authorities of both sides by calling the phone hotline, which can serve as a single emergency contact platform, Huang said. One can also receive related information including which hospital in Taiwan or China can offer the best service and where to book homecoming flight tickets, he noted. Wang Tzong-luen (王宗倫), president of Taiwan's Society of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, noted yesterday that the hotline will soon to be completed on Taiwan's side. However, Chinese government's approval for the joint platform is still pending.  Hopefully the hotline can be officially kicked off by the end of the year, Wang said.