Hospital volunteers serve as 'nice' bridge to medical care

By 10 am on April 17, Tan Zheng had already been standing for one and a half hours on the second floor of the packed outpatient department at Beijing Children's Hospital.

People approached Tan, 39, with all kinds of queries. A man asked her where he could find an ATM. Another asked her how to get a refund for a test that his son did not want to go through with. An elderly woman needed help when she got lost in the building as she tried to visit a relative in one of the wards.

Tan often found herself surrounded by parents holding prescriptions for their children. They also asked her where to make payments or appointments, as well as for directions on where to get a blood or sonography test.