NGOs innovate to fill healthcare gap

Impoverished rural residents get benefits of more insurance and video consultation, as Li Lei from Beijing and Zhou Huiying from Hailun, Heilongjiang province, report

At Beijing Union Clinic Partner - a private medical service provider funded by a charity foundation - a long-distance consultation was being held on Feb 2. On one side of the video call was Zhu Wenling, a retired chief cardiologist from Beijing Union Medical College Hospital, where thousands of patients from all over the country line up for the medical expertise of China's best doctors.

On the other side was Zhang Gui, a 68-year-old coronary disease patient hospitalized at Hailun People's Hospital in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province.