The Shanghai Health Bureau issued an urgent notice yesterday, requiring all local medical facilities to augment out-patient and emergency department services which can expect a major increase in patients suffering cardiovascular diseases, fractures and respiratory problems.

All city and district medical emergency centers should have extra ambulances and staff on hand, the notice said.

The bureau also sent a health warning yesterday, telling residents to be aware of the dangers of respiratory disease, traffic accidents, gas poisonings and to take special care of the elderly, children, pregnant women and those with history of cardiovascular disease.

"People can call `12320' - the 24-hour hot-line launched by local health authorities - for consultation and medical information,'' said Song Guofan of the Shanghai Health Bureau.

Officials from the Shanghai Medical Emergency Center said it had about 700 calls for ambulances each day since late last week, 10 percent higher than normal.

"We sent out 749 ambulances last Friday,'' said Guan Min, a center official, yesterday. "We will definitely break last year's record today with 400 ambulance calls answered just this morning. Many people called the `120' hotline after slipping on the snow or being involved in traffic accidents.''

Hospitals also reported a big increase in admissions yesterday.

"The number of patients we saw injured after they fell tripled this morning. It is rare to receive these cases normally. We treated 40 patients suffering fractures today, most of them were young people going to work,'' said Dr Pan Shuming, vice director of Xinhua Hospital's emergency treatment department.

(Shanghai Daily January 29, 2008)