Proposals from local political advisers to be filed to the “two sessions” were reviewed by the Committee for Handling Proposals of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference’s local branch yesterday.

By 11:30am, 316 proposals had been made. More than 38 percent were about economy, followed by 36.7 percent on social construction and 11.4 percent on ecological environment.

Topics covered the Lingang Special Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Yangtze River Delta integration’s fiscal and tax reform, talent in science and innovation, home-based elderly care services and reform of the medical and health systems.

Two joint proposals concerned ambulance and taxi provision for the elderly, especially wheelchair users.

Local adviser Feng Maolunsaid the ambulances could not meet residents’ increasing needs, especially after a non-emergency ambulance hotline opened in 2018.

In the past year or more, the hotline sent non-emergency ambulances some 200 times a day on average to take people with limited mobility from hospital to home or to another hospital. Some patients had to wait hoursfor an ambulance, according to the proposal.

There was also a shortage of medical staff onambulances.

Feng and his fellow CPPCC members suggested that non-emergency ambulances should be a separate section under the Shanghai Medical Emergency Center with its own vehicles and staff.

To address the ambulance staff shortage, they said hiring should not be limited to medical students. “People who have been trained in first aid and qualified to care for the patients can be hired as non-emergency ambulance workers, such as ex-soldiers and rescue workers,” Feng told Shanghai Daily.