Zhabei Central Hospital: From Clinic to Central Medical Centre

Basic information

This piece is about a hospital. It is not a "place to go", but a stop that no Zhabei person can avoid from birth to old age.

Starting from a "clinic"

Zhabei's district-level medical base was thinner than many people think.

In the early years of New China, Zhabei had not one district hospital worth the name. In 1954 the Shanghai Zhabei Clinic was set up — a "clinic" in name, and in fact a few rooms and a small staff.

Its "superiors" changed twice: in 1955 it was led by the Shanghai Municipal No. 5 People's Hospital, and in 1957 by the Beizhan Hospital. One small clinic, attached to two hospitals in succession — this experience shows how small it was at the start.

But Zhabei's population was growing, and so was the need. On 10 April 1960 the clinic was formally expanded into the "Zhabei District Central Hospital of Shanghai". From "clinic" to "district central hospital" was a road of six years — every step of its promotion was pushed along by the people on this ground.

Why Zhabei needed a hospital "of its own"

In the 1950s and 1960s Zhabei was one of the most densely populated districts in Shanghai: generations crowded into shikumen, and workers' villages spread out one after another.

For seeing a doctor, what people feared most was "crossing the river" — the big hospitals south of Suzhou Creek were, for those living deep in Zhabei, places an hour of tram-riding and a long queue away. The point of a district central hospital was to spare people the river crossing to see a doctor.

After it was founded, the Zhabei District Central Hospital grew bit by bit into the mainstay of medical care for the whole district: from outpatients to inpatients, from everyday consultations to emergency care, from prevention to rehabilitation — the history of its growth is the history of the shrinking distance Zhabei people had to travel for treatment.

The Shi school of traumatology: a "heritage" nameplate

Step into Zhabei Central Hospital and there is one nameplate not to miss: the Shi school of traumatology — a Shanghai municipal intangible cultural heritage.

Traumatology is the most "down-to-earth" department in traditional Chinese medicine: injuries from falls and knocks, fractures and dislocations, strains of the lower back and legs — the old woman who took a tumble in the lane, the child who twisted an ankle on the ball court, both count on this craft. The Shi school of traumatology descends from a line of traditional Chinese bone-setting schools; landing in this hospital, it gave Zhabei people a place they could confidently go to for trauma care.

(That a district-level hospital can hang out a heritage nameplate is quite rare. It shows that what this hospital stands on was never only "scale".)

The "life support" in the figures

• 669 approved beds and a staff of more than 1,000 — for a district-level hospital, a very solid base;
• the largest haemodialysis centre in the city: dialysis patients come two or three times a week, to them "a routine like going to work", to the hospital "a promise that can never stop";
• the largest hyperbaric oxygen chamber in the central city — a life-saving facility for emergencies such as carbon monoxide poisoning and sudden deafness;
• a member of the 120 emergency network (since the 1980s), and the designated hospital in its area for public-health events such as SARS and influenza A (H1N1) — seeing patients in ordinary times, holding the line in emergencies.

From "district central" to "central medical centre"

After the 2015 "merger of two districts into one" between Jing'an and Zhabei, the hospital was renamed the Jing'an District Zhabei Central Hospital, and its role was updated with it: the central regional medical centre of Jing'an District.

In March 2018, as the lead institution, it joined with the Beizhan Hospital, the district hospital of traditional Chinese medicine, the district maternity and child health institute, the district mental health centre and six surrounding community health service centres to form the "Jing'an District central medical consortium" — put plainly: minor illnesses handled in the community, serious ones referred up, recovery referred back, and seeing a doctor began to learn not to be a run-around.

Looking ahead, the rebuild and expansion of the hospital's western plot is already on the schedule: the site will grow to 73 mu, the beds to 978, with the aim of a Grade 3 general hospital. Counting from that "clinic" of 1954, this hospital is still on its way up.

Practical tips

1. A hospital is not a sight. People are anxious here every day — unless you are going for treatment or to visit a patient, please do not "sightsee";
2. how to get there: 619 Zhonghua Xin Road. It is within walking distance of Shanghai Railway Station on Metro Lines 1, 3 and 4, and bus routes are dense nearby (the Zhongxing Road / Gonghexin Road area); if you drive, note that parking on the surrounding small streets is tight;
3. if you are only passing by: this stretch of Zhonghua Xin Road is well worth a walk — to the east is the corner of Xinxin Department Store (today's "Prince Department Store"), and all around are old workers' villages in one stretch after another; this area is a good sample for observing "the everyday of Zhabei";
4. one word of advice: its peak for consultations, like every big hospital's, is in the morning — get your ticket early, or come at an off-peak hour.

Connections

• Sub-district：Zhijiang West Road Subdistrict
• See also：Zhijiang West Road Subdistrict, Xinxin Department Store, Shanghai Railway Station

Sources: the lineage (the setting up of the Shanghai Zhabei Clinic in 1954, its being led by the Municipal No. 5 People's Hospital in 1955 and by the Beizhan Hospital in 1957, its expansion into the Zhabei District Central Hospital of Shanghai on 10 April 1960, and its becoming a district Red Cross hospital in 1989) follows the Wikipedia entry "Jing'an District Zhabei Central Hospital, Shanghai" and A Compendium of Chinese Hospitals: Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai Volume (1989, Grade C); the founding date, the site of 42 mu, the floor area of 62,000 square metres, the 669 approved beds, the more than 1,000 employees, the more than 120 holders of senior professional titles, the 24 clinical departments and 9 medical-technology departments, its being a Grade 2A general hospital, its role as the central regional medical centre of Jing'an District and as lead institution of the central medical consortium, the Shi school of traumatology as a Shanghai municipal intangible cultural heritage, the largest haemodialysis centre in the city, the largest hyperbaric oxygen chamber in the central city, its catchment of nearly 800,000 residents, its membership of the "120 emergency network" since the 1980s and its being the designated hospital for regional public-health tasks since 2003 follow the hospital's official profile (as given in public recruitment notices and the membership pages of the trade association, Grade B); the formation of the Jing'an District central medical consortium on 21 March 2018 follows the hospital's public material (Grade B); the rebuild and expansion of the western plot (a site of 73 mu, 978 beds) and the aim of completing a Grade 3 general hospital during the 14th Five-Year Plan follow the reply of the Jing'an District Development and Reform Commission to the feasibility study report on the regional medical centre rebuild-and-expansion project (9 November 2020) and reports in Jiefang Daily (Grade B); that the sub-district of the hospital's address (619 Zhonghua Xin Road) is Zhijiang West Road Subdistrict follows the Jing'an District People's Government's "Shanghai Jing'an" map-search platform and the approval document of the District Development and Reform Commission (Grade B). The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.