Medical staff in Beijing are working excessive overtime under enormous pressure, according to a study presented by a member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Beijing committee at this week's annual gathering.

Niu Jisheng, the committee member whose group carried out the research, urged the government to safeguard both the physical and mental health of medical workers.

A senior city politician responded by saying that new community clinics being established in Beijing will address many of Niu's concerns.

Niu said his research shows that many of the capital's doctors and nurses are putting in long hours and suffering from the pressure of work.

According to the study, more than 50 percent of doctors and at least 30 percent of nurseswork more than nine hours a day. Twelve percent of doctors and 5 percent of nurses work more than 12 hours.

Half of the doctors said they need to work overtime three times a week. Meanwhile, more than one-fifth of doctors said they were under huge psychological pressure.

Statistics also show that medical workers are more likely to have chronic diseases than the average Beijinger.

"Medical workers work to ensure that people have healthy bodies and then we can talk about living happily and with dignity, as Premier Wen said. But what if our doctors and nurses themselves do not live happily? Can we expect them to give us high-quality services?" Niu asked.

The study revealed that most medical workers felt excessively tired at the end of the day.

And half of the capital's medical workers reported having little satisfaction with their lives. Niu called for improvements to the working environment and guarantees that medical workers can enjoy two days off each week.

"How can you ask a couple to stay happily married if they don't see each other for a whole week?" he asked while explaining that nurses have a higher rate of divorce than other women because of their heavy workload.

He also called on the local government to raise the wage of medical staff, explaining that the city's rates are below the national average and far behind similar metropolitan cities, such as Shanghai.

Ding Xiangyang, vice-mayor of Beijing, said the improvement of the lot of medical workers will be high on the government's agenda.

Ding said the development of community-level hospitals will help ease the pressure on major hospitals and on the staff who work in them.

"Community clinics will play a more important role in Beijing because we can't leave everything to the big hospitals, which are already over-stretched," Ding said.

"As the number of senior citizens keeps growing, the city badly needs more local medical centers to take care of its old people."

The number of medical workers in the capital should also be increased by at least 20 percent, Ding said.

He said community clinics will complement major hospitals and offer things such as terminal care that are not available in the large hospitals.

"In the West, many elderly people happily spend their last months in community medical centers, where they do not rely too much on their children and do not take up too much of the social medical resources," Ding said.

"But in China, people either die in hospital or at home. We really lack the special care that society can give to those walking toward the end of their lives."

The community clinics would also serve as places where patients with chronic conditions can receive regular medical treatment.

(China Daily January 18, 2011)