What should the elderly do if they have difficulties in using Internet medical care？ National Health Commission answers.

　　On the afternoon of December 14th, the State Council Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism held a press conference with the theme of "Medical and Health Services and Drug Production and Supply". Responsible comrades and relevant experts from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Health and Wellness Commission, and the relevant departments of the National Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention attended the conference and answered questions from the media.

　　Reporter’s question: Internet medical care can reduce the number of people going to the hospital, which really facilitates many patients during the epidemic situation. However, we also notice that some netizens have reported that the information channels for online diagnosis and treatment or online consultation are not very smooth, especially for the elderly. There are certain difficulties in using it. How can Internet medical care better play its role in epidemic prevention and control, and further improve the friendliness of Internet medical care to the elderly?

　　Jiao Yahui, Director of the Department of Medical Administration of National Health Commission, said that in order to better meet the needs of the broad masses of people for medical treatment during the COVID-19 epidemic, we have stepped up efforts to promote Internet medical care. On December 7th, our joint prevention and control mechanism issued the Notice on Doing a Good Job in Internet Medical Services in COVID-19. On the one hand, various medical institutions were allowed to provide Internet medical services, and patients with COVID-19-related symptoms were provided with Internet medical services, and prescriptions were issued, and drugs were distributed offline. On the other hand, we advocate providing 24-hour online consultation and medication guidance, especially promoting non-emergency treatment by appointment. Through non-emergency treatment, making appointments at different time intervals can reduce the peak of people visiting the hospital at the same time, divert the vast number of patients and reduce the risk of cross-infection.

　　Jiao Yahui said, we advocate or suggest that if the broad masses of people have chosen the appointment service, they must go to the medical institution for treatment according to the appointment time period, and do not wait in the hospital for a long time in advance, so as to shorten the waiting time in the hospital by accurately making an appointment in different time periods. We have noticed that in many parts of the country, Beijing and Shandong have announced the list of medical institutions that can provide Internet medical care to the public, further facilitating the people to choose the channels of Internet medical care and unblocking the channels.

　　Jiao Yahui said that regarding the difficulties in Internet medical care for the elderly, last year, as an important measure of "I do practical things for the masses", we issued the Notice on Further Implementing Measures to Facilitate the Elderly’s Medical Care, which solved the problem of the digital gap in the process of the elderly’s medical treatment. We asked the Internet hospitals of medical institutions to carry out aging transformation, simplify the online appointment process, facilitate the choice of Internet medical services for the elderly through voice entry, increase the channels of manual services, and increase the number of family members.

　　According to Jiao Yahui, as far as we know, many places have launched a series of measures to facilitate the elderly during the COVID-19 epidemic. We know that Shanghai has launched the project of "Nursing Home+Internet Hospital" to facilitate the elderly in nursing homes to choose Internet medical services. West china hospital has transformed their Internet hospital to adapt to aging, and it is convenient for elderly patients to choose Internet medical services through face recognition, artificial intelligence assistance, voice input and adding artificial service seats.

　　Jiao Yahui said that if the elderly are physically allowed, they can also choose a community health service center near their home. Our community health service center can also provide remote medical services for the elderly in the medical association. It is hoped that by taking various measures simultaneously, we will continuously expand the channels of service and enrich the means of service to better meet the needs of the broad masses of the people, especially the elderly.