Wang Zhongyuan is scanning for registration at the entrance of a hospital in Tianjin.
Photo by our reporter Bai Jiali
Our reporter Bai Jiali, Li Yating, Yin Siyuan
"How lonely is it to go to the hospital alone?"
There was a hot post on the Internet about the “grading of loneliness”, among which “seeing a doctor alone” and “doing an operation alone” are the “ultimate loneliness” in the eyes of netizens.
In real life, the "empty-nest elderly" with their children working outside, and the "single youth" working alone, have to face this "loneliness" and other problems beyond the "loneliness" after falling ill.
Some time ago, a video about professional doctors became popular on the Internet, and the profession of “accompanying doctors” gradually entered the public's field of vision.
Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporter decided to follow in the footsteps of a couple of escorts in Tianjin to see if this emerging industry can be a solution to the difficult problem of "lonely visits" under urbanization and aging.
The strangest "relatives"
At 7 o'clock in the morning, Wang Zhongyuan and his wife Zhang Min hurriedly finished their breakfast, and the soldiers split into two different hospitals.
Today, as usual, the husband and wife will accompany the two patients to help them complete the entire medical treatment process.
And their children are left to the care of the elderly at home.
Wang Zhongyuan and Zhang Min's wife are both professional escorts.
In the past two months as an escort, Wang Zhongyuan has summarized some rules. For example, the most orders received are "children's orders for parents", "young people are ordering, but elderly people are going to see a doctor. The elderly naturally become our main service targets."
Wang Zhongyuan was accompanied by the 73-year-old Uncle Wang today. Before this, he had accompanied Uncle Wang for 4 injections.
Walking into the old community where Uncle Wang lived, walked up to the unit building and knocked on the door. Waiting for Uncle Wang to clean up, Wang Zhongyuan assisted Uncle Wang downstairs.
Because they were "acquaintances", Wang Zhongyuan and Uncle Wang chatted one after another.
When Uncle Wang walked tremblingly to the gate of the community, the taxi that Wang Zhongyuan had called in advance arrived just in time.
After Uncle Fu Wang got into the car, Wang Zhongyuan kept instructing the driver that the old man was dizzy, so please slow down the brakes and start.
"The first time I took Uncle Wang for an injection was by bus. As a result, the old man was very dizzy in the car." Wang Zhongyuan said.
Uncle Wang is a typical old man living alone in Tianjin, a highly aging city. His only son stayed in Nanjing after returning from studying abroad.
Although the tone of my son is proud, "My child didn't make me worry about studying, he is really sensible", but my life has become more and more empty with age.
Until July of this year, Uncle Wang suddenly fainted at home, lying on the bed feebly, and barely dialing his son's phone.
"Before, I was in good health. I exercised every morning, but I was terribly scared that time." Uncle Wang said, his son rushed back to take him to see a doctor, and was eventually diagnosed with severe anemia and needed treatment for a month.
But because of work, his son could not stay in Tianjin for that long.
Who will accompany the elderly to see a doctor?
"I told him that I could do it by myself, but he couldn't worry about me, for fear that I would faint again." Uncle Wang said.
Therefore, Uncle Wang's son got in touch with Wang Zhongyuan's "Related escort" through the Internet.
Every other day, Wang Zhongyuan would show up at the door of Uncle Wang’s house on time, assisting the elderly, helping the elderly, getting a taxi, scanning the QR code in the hospital, accompanying injections, and even quickly handing over a tissue when Uncle Wang was sweating.
If you don't wear the special red vest made by the doctor, it is difficult to distinguish whether it is a relative or an outsider.
"In fact, this industry has been in existence all these years, but why hasn't it developed and been widely accepted? Part of the reason is that this job requires empathy and affection. I sometimes think about it, an old man like Uncle Wang is alone. It's not easy. Everyone has an old man, chatting with him, helping him walk around, he is also happy in his heart, and his children are at ease." Wang Zhongyuan said.
While Wang Zhongyuan was accompanying Uncle Wang for the injection, Zhang Min was at Tianjin People's Hospital preparing to accompany an elderly person for a CT examination.
However, from 7:40 until 9 o'clock, Zhang Min did not wait for anyone. "The old man is in the inpatient department now, and the hospital requires that he wait for the round before he can come down for the checkup, so I can only queue up in the CT area first." Zhang Min said.
At 9:40, the old man finally came to the CT area.
Zhang Min hurriedly greeted him and said, "Hello Auntie, I am your daughter's colleague!"
Later Zhang Min explained, "The old man’s daughter came to us because the old man was afraid of spending money, so she didn’t dare to let the old man know that it was a paid visitor. She also specifically asked me not to wear work clothes, but to wear my own clothes. Just say it's a colleague." Zhang Min said that she and her colleagues often encounter similar situations, and now they can cope with ease.
As an escort for one year, Zhang Min accompanied many elderly people. In the process of running around the hospital, her biggest feeling is that the increasingly intelligent hospital has brought a lot of inconvenience to the elderly.
"Nowadays, many hospitals have self-service registration and payment machines, but the machines are not a convenience for some elderly people, but a burden."
On the day when she went to Tianjin People's Hospital to accompany her, she saw at the entrance of the hospital two elderly people in their 60s wandering and hesitating when they were admitted to the hospital.
Zhang Min took the initiative to refresh the admission code for the two elderly people before they entered the hospital smoothly.
"Walking into the hospital some old people is like walking into a maze." Zhang Min said.
A young man placed an order for himself
In addition to buying escort services for their parents, some young people also place orders for themselves.
"Any emotions will be magnified in the face of illness. For many young people, the escort may not be for a specific service, but the sense of security that accompany brings." Wang Zhongyuan said.
On the afternoon of July 21st, Zhang Min wanted to accompany Xiao Liu who was on a business trip to Tianjin for a minor operation. This was the first time she had accompanied a male surgical patient.
“After all, I’m a boy. It’s still a bit inconvenient to care for. In fact, there are some entanglements in my heart. But through chatting with him, I gradually adjusted my mindset and regarded him as a younger brother. It’s not easy for the young man. There are other ways that he will not seek an escort. I can see that even though it is a minor operation, he is still a little scared. I will comfort him and talk to him more, and his emotions will also be relieved." Zhang Min said .
That afternoon, she came to the hospital early.
After Xiao Liu's operation was over, he helped him make the bed and moved the patient to the bed with the medical staff. She started chatting with Xiao Liu to help him calm down his nervousness.
When Xiao Liu wanted to go to the bathroom, Zhang Min helped hold the infusion bottle.
In this way, Zhang Min has been busy from three in the afternoon to more than ten in the evening.
Although it was a costly service, Xiao Liu was very grateful to Zhang Min for his company.
"There is still some fear in the operation. I found a doctor on the Internet, but I was actually worried about what kind of person it was. It was not until I met and chatted that I felt more at ease. With her by my side, at least There is a caregiver by his side, and there is someone to help you with everything."
"In fact, even if they don't do anything, just stay with me, I will feel much better in my heart." Xiao Liu added.
Wang Zhongyuan also often provided escort services for such young people, and he was deeply impressed by a single.
In July, he received a call from a young girl with a very anxious voice.
The girl said that her father was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer and his lower limbs were paralyzed. He needed to be checked in the afternoon, but she and her mother couldn't move him to the examination bed because she and her mother couldn't hold his 140-jin father.
Wang Zhongyuan arrived on time. The girl’s father looked healthy. Only his unconscious lower limbs revealed that he was actually a terminal cancer patient. “Moving his father from a wheelchair to an examination bed, and from an examination bed to a wheelchair, During the whole process of escort, I only did two simple things."
But these two simple things stumped the little girl in front of her.
"Doctors are generally reluctant to help transfer patients. In addition, his illness is actually very serious. Others are afraid of accidents and are afraid of taking risks." Wang Zhongyuan said that the accompanying doctor had a great impact on him. The seemingly trivial things may have been a great help to the patient's family.
A few days later, the girl called Wang Zhongyuan again. This time it was still the same job, but this time instead of going for an examination, she was taken and discharged from the hospital.
"Because it is already in the late stage, the hospital recommends conservative treatment." Wang Zhongyuan was sad that day, especially when he saw his family trying to act as if nothing had happened in order not to put psychological pressure on the patient.
Wang Zhongyuan pulled the girl aside and told her that the company recently launched a cash rebate program for writing a comment, and he could give the girl part of the money.
"In fact, there is no such activity at all. It was made up by me. They spent a lot of money on seeing a doctor, so they wanted to charge less, which can be regarded as providing a little help."
Of course, there are also some people who are forced to contact Wang Zhongyuan.
For example, for safety reasons, some inspection hospitals stipulate that relatives must be accompanied, and young people who "see a doctor alone" have to seek help from an escort.
Not long ago, a young man from Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province came to Tianjin for an intensive CT examination of the heart. He arrived at the hospital and discovered that this examination must be accompanied by relatives.
The young man found Wang Zhongyuan.
"He originally wanted to find his father, but it takes time for his family to come. He doesn't want to delay the examination. In fact, we have saved the patient's time and economic costs."
Helping others to solve problems brought Wang Zhongyuan a sense of accomplishment, but he also had a red line that he couldn't cross during the accompanying diagnosis.
Once there was a young man who went for an abortion alone. He hoped that Wang Zhongyuan could sign on behalf of his family, but he refused.
Wang Zhong's original principles, the company has relevant regulations, escort services must not violate laws and ethics, and matters related to the life and health of patients must not be child's play.
"You can't treat this as pure business"
In fact, Wang Zhongyuan has only been in this industry for more than two months.
“I started my business after graduating from university. Last year, I started to pay attention to the elderly care service field and found that the elderly people generally have the problem of seeing a doctor. I feel that this is a big market. Under the dual promotion of urbanization and aging, the future is bound to have unlimited prospects. But we need Find an entry point first, and then gradually expand the business." Through research, Wang Zhongyuan found that "lack of accompany care" is a difficult and painful point for many elderly patients, so they hope to solve these problems by providing professional escort services.
In May of this year, Wang Zhongyuan provided escort services in the "Jin Le Accompanying Care" he founded, and promoted it through some well-known online platforms.
What he didn't expect was that some people contacted him, hoping to become a part-time "accompanying doctor."
"There are retired nurses, full-time mothers who have a lot of free time, and young people who feel novel after seeing news reports and want to experience it." Soon, in addition to his wife Zhang Min, the company gradually developed several people to form full-time jobs. The team of escorts also recruited more than 20 part-time escorts.
In Wang Zhongyuan’s company, the general fee for accompanying a doctor for half a day is around 200 yuan, and the fee is around 300 yuan for 8 hours a day.
Since its opening, Wang Zhongyuan has received an average of about 20 orders per month.
Such income is far from enough for business operations, and there is no profit yet.
But Wang Zhongyuan cherished hope, "You can't do this as pure business, otherwise you can't do it."
In his view, the development prospects of this market are very broad.
Urbanization and aging are important reasons for the emergence of the demand for accompanying doctors. Urbanization is advancing rapidly and the aging of the population is accelerating, but many socialized services have not kept up, making the demand for accompanying doctors more and more urgent.
During the preliminary market research process, Wang Zhongyuan discovered that although many hospitals provide medical guidance and volunteers, they generally give directions.
The standardized services provided by hospitals, to a large extent, cannot meet individualized medical needs.
"The escort is not just as simple as queuing up for registration, helping to get medicines, and accompanying the doctor. What the escort provides is personalized professional services, because the needs of customers are diverse. We are in contact with people who need care. It is impossible to do well if you don’t put your emotions into it. Only by paying attention to the needs of customers, working with emotions, and satisfying individual needs can customers be satisfied.” Wang Zhongyuan said.
"Heart and affection" is also Zhang Min's work creed. She knows the magic of the word "heart".
She used to accompany a mother and daughter, and both seemed to be in good health. Zhang Min couldn't figure out why they called the escort.
"Before registering at the time, my mother asked for a rest. I started chatting with her. After chatting, I realized that my mother's illness was not in the body, but in the heart." Zhang Min said that she discovered that the mother had died because of her relatives. At that time, because of the epidemic, I couldn't rush back to see my relatives, leaving a knot in my heart. I always felt uncomfortable and had no obvious symptoms.
Zhang Min talked with her for a long time, using the patient psychological counseling skills she had trained before to enlighten her. The mother burst into tears, her heart resolved, and realized her crux, she took her daughter back home.
In order to provide better services, Zhang Min took courses in health management, nursery, psychological counseling, etc. Wang Zhongyuan also wanted to make his escort team more professional, but he soon discovered that the market is not It's not as simple as he thought.
"Most customers do not have very strong requirements for the professionalism of the escort. Customers don’t know about the escort service, and they care more about the cost-effectiveness. If you blindly increase the professional requirements of the team, it is bound to increase the fee, but the customer is not. I bought it." He analyzed.
Wang Zhongyuan researched in many places and found that in Beijing, Xi'an and other cities, there are sporadic companies that provide escort services, and most of the rest are privately received orders through the Internet. "The national escort market is still in its infancy."
According to analysis by industry insiders, around 2015, the escort service market ushered in a small wave of development, and escort companies that obtained financing appeared on the market, but most of them have disappeared after a year or two.
The reason is that people have too little understanding of this service and it is very difficult to promote it. Second, the demand for escort services is far from being stimulated.
For a company, it is difficult to survive by only relying on an accompanying doctor.
But Wang Zhong had confidence in the future.
Recently, there have been more and more orders coming from home. Some are elderly people living alone with their children in other places, some are pregnant women whose husbands are busy with work and have to do their own check-ups, and some are young people who work alone and perform operations alone. Some are single mothers who do not know how to do so... Wang Zhongyuan and his colleagues spend the "lonely moments" of their lives with one person after another.
"Sometimes, you just need to be by their side." Zhang Min said.