China Hospital DirectoryA notice on the gov.cn site, dated 22 April 2025, issues the Hospital Accompaniment-free Care Service Pilot Work Plan.
The pilot plan
The notice is issued by the General Office of the National Health Commission, the General Department of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the General Department of the National Disease Control and Prevention Administration.
The plan says accompaniment-free care service mainly refers to daily-life care provided during a patient's hospital stay by nurses or by care assistants employed by the hospital, on the basis of informed consent and voluntary choice by the patient or the patient's family and according to the patient's condition and self-care ability.
The plan gives the pilot period as June 2025 to June 2027.
The plan says the aim is to explore a service model suited to China's conditions and to form local experience that can be copied and extended, from points to the whole, step by step.
Which hospitals take part
The plan says that comprehensive-reform focus provinces and demonstration cities for public-hospital reform and high-quality development are each to designate one tertiary hospital.
The plan says priority is to be given to pilot hospitals for the high-quality development of public hospitals.
The plan says each province, autonomous region and municipality is to designate at least 1 to 2 tertiary hospitals in provincial capitals and prefecture-level cities with a deeper degree of population ageing.
The plan says the tertiary hospitals include at least one hospital of traditional Chinese medicine, and that each province decides the list.
Wards and staffing
The plan says pilot hospitals should explore the service first in wards with a high proportion of inpatients at the first level of nursing care.
The plan says that in pilot wards, the ratio of nurses to open beds should in principle be no lower than 0.6 to 1.
The plan says that where ward nurses are insufficient, a suitable number of trained medical care assistants may be provided, whether employed directly by the hospital or dispatched by third-party labour agencies.
The plan also says pilot hospitals should strengthen the management of visits to inpatients, reflect humane care and provide patients with a quiet and orderly inpatient environment.
What care assistants do
The plan says medical care assistants are not health professional and technical personnel.
The plan says medical care assistants should, under the guidance of medical staff, help inpatients who can care for themselves only in part, who cannot care for themselves at all, or whose movement is restricted, with daily-life care such as meals, cleaning and bathing.
The plan says medical care assistants must not do professional technical nursing work and must not replace medical staff.
Questions people ask
What does the plan mean by accompaniment-free care service?
The plan says accompaniment-free care service mainly refers to daily-life care provided during a patient's hospital stay by nurses or by care assistants employed by the hospital, on the basis of informed consent and voluntary choice by the patient or the patient's family and according to the patient's condition and self-care ability.
How long does the pilot run according to the plan?
The plan gives the pilot period as June 2025 to June 2027.
What may care assistants not do according to the plan?
The plan says medical care assistants must not do professional technical nursing work and must not replace medical staff.
Sources
Each source above was read on the date shown. This page is an unofficial summary of general administrative information. It is not published by the bodies named above, and it is not medical or legal advice. If it differs from the official pages, the official pages prevail, and rules may change after the check date.
Entry facts come from the hospital’s own pages as read on the dates shown in each source note; this unofficial summary is not medical advice, and the hospital’s current published information prevails. Medical and legal notice