The Chinese capital of Beijing plans to build its largest ever outpatient building for the 2008 Olympic Games and 2008 Paralympic Games, local sources said.  

 

The 16-storey building at the Anzhen Hospital in north Beijing, covering an area of 58,000 square meters, will provide medical services to more than 5,000 reporters at the Olympic media village and athletes from the swimming venue, said hospital chief Zhang Zhaoguang on Thursday. 

 

The building also has a parking lot which can accommodate 500 cars, said Zhang.  

 

The hospital will provide ten pharmaceutical experts to carry out drug tests during the Olympics, said Zhang.  

 

More than 20 hospitals in Beijing have been selected for the 2008 Olympic Games, with all the doctors receiving training in English.  

 

Doctors in the designated hospitals will write prescriptions for foreign patients in both Chinese and English, according to the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau.  

 

First aid volunteers speaking other languages will be recruited. The bureau will cooperate with banks to ensure foreign patients can use international bank cards in the hospitals from 2007.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2007)