Extra large sickbeds, standard bilingual signs, classified drugs, detailed emergency response plans... as the Olympics draws near, the 24 hospitals designated to serve the Games in Beijing have been well-prepared, especially with details.

Jin Dapeng, chief of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games' medical support group, said all the designated hospitals have reached the Olympic standard in terms of organizations, working procedure, bilingual signs, "green passages", barrier-free facilities, and stimulants management.

The hospitals have not only trained their medical and logistic service staff of medical skills, etiquettes and language, but also paid attention to details.

The China-Japan Friendship Hospital, which has been designated to treat athletes during the Games, has ordered several 2.4m-long sickbeds, which are 40 cm longer than usual ones, for tall players.

"It's no problem even if Yao Ming comes," said Xu Shuo, director of the international medical treatment department of the hospital.

Tian Jiazheng, director of the medical affairs department of the Beijing Hospital, said they have tagged "cautions for athletes" or "forbidden for athletes" to all the medicines that contain stimulants in its pharmacy and trained their doctors and nurses with the list.

The hospital installed wireless call system in all the toilets of inpatient and outpatient buildings, provide internet access for inpatients in the wards, and offered English training to its staff, including doctors in different sections, ambulance drivers, and reception desk nurses, Tian said.

"They have been practising English words, phrases and sentences, which will be commonly used during the Olympics, for four to five months," he said.

Besides, it has made a three-level emergency response plan for medical emergencies during the Games, including earthquake, fire, major traffic accidents, infectious diseases, and bio-terrorist attacks, according to Tian.

Guang'anmen Hospital of China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, which is specialized in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been prepared to shown the effectiveness of traditional Chinese medical treatment, including acupuncture, massage and psychological treatment, and Chinese medicine to the world.

However, "we will be very careful with some traditional medicine which may contain stimulants," said Wang Weidong, vice-president of the hospital.

Wang said the hospital has spent more than 200,000 yuan (about 28,985 U.S. dollars) to rebuild bilingual signs.

"We also have the standard translations for TCM, which can be used by doctors when they write the prescriptions," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2008)