Professional "patient companions" tending to Chinese elderly

HEFEI, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- After walking out of the consultation room, Li Feng repeated the doctor's advice to patient Liu Qing (pseudonym), who is suffering from chronic kidney disease.

"The treatment goal is to stabilize renal function and reduce protein level in urine. You need to maintain a balanced diet and get adequate sleep," Li explained to Liu, as if they were close friends or relatives, despite the fact that they had only known each other for about an hour.

Li is in a unique and relatively new profession, "patient companion," which has become increasingly popular among the aged in China.

The job entails providing assistance and companionship to lonely patients, mostly the elderly, during their hospital visits.

To facilitate his hospital visit, Liu booked the companion service online in advance and met with Li in front of the Anhui Provincial Hospital in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province.

"I want to have someone to talk to when I'm in the hospital. Besides, I often experience inexplicable dizziness, so I need to undergo a neurological test for my brain, but patients are required to be accompanied by someone to do this test and I usually live alone," Liu said, explaining why he used the patient companionship service.

A visit to hospitals with a complicated layout and various self-service machines can be challenging for the elderly. "I do believe the job of patient companions is necessary because they can help reduce the burden of medics and increase the operational efficiency of the hospital," said Zhao Hong, a radiologist with the Second Hospital of Anhui Medical University.

Official data shows that by the end of 2021, China had 267 million people aged 60 and above, or 18.9 percent of the total population, while those aged 65 and above accounted for over 14 percent of the population.

"More than half of my clients are elderly people, and usually it's their children who help book the service," said Gao Yue, 26, who has been working as a patient companion in Hefei for nearly a year.

At times, Gao needs to, at the request of the children, pretend to be a friend or a colleague of theirs, so that their parents will feel more comfortable when they meet her. "Most elderly people are pretty frugal. They might think hiring someone simply for a company is a waste of money.

However, there is a growing need for patient companion services since many aged people live alone in recent years. Their children, owing to different reasons, may not be able to attend to them immediately when they are sick, Gao noted.

Gao has worked at pharmacies for three years after graduating from a medical university. She said she decided to become a patient companion because "the work time is more flexible" and it gives her a sense of achievement in helping people in need.

Registration work for patients, queuing, guiding them to complete the medical treatment process and running errands such as delivering medical reports or medicine, Gao walks over 20,000 steps on a busy day.

She charges 200 yuan (about 28 U.S. dollars) for a half-day service and gets 10 to 30 orders per month, with some tasks lasting for two to three days.

Once while she was accompanying a client in Anhui Provincial Hospital, Gao saw an old man who seemed at loss. Out of her professional habit, she went up to the 92-year-old man and escorted him to the hospital gate after helping him get the medicine.

I came back and apologized to the patient who paid me for the companion service, and he was very understanding. Making money is not the only goal. We have to be responsible, and treat patients as if they were our family members, Gao said.

Some people would leave her a tip of 10 to 50 yuan or buy her a drink as a mark of gratitude for her good service. Gao has cultivated a stable client base thanks to her excellent work.

Tuesday marks this year's Seniors' Day in China, an occasion to honor and send regards to the country's elderly. It is also known as the Double Ninth Festival, which falls on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month.