Beijing hospital uses robot to minimise infection risk

CORONAVIRUS | The robot Xiao Bao has been trained by medical workers and put to operations in Haidian Hospital, Beijing for a week. It goes around restricted wards where suspected and infected patients are staying.

Remotely controlled by medical workers, the robot delivers medications, takes temperatures, and spends time educating patients about medical precautions.

Dong Jianping, director at the hospital's department of infectious diseases, said having the robot means a huge stone is lifted off her heart as staying too long in the restricted wards poses high risks for medical workers.

"We need to spend a lot of time with patients as we have to know the situation of patients in the shortest time. At that time my biggest concern was my colleagues. 

"The patients were taken good care of and when their condition became stable, I started to worry about whether our team was protected enough, whether my friends were under the risk of infection. I worried throughout the 14-day incubation period," said Dong.

The best thing about the robot, Dong said, is that doctors and patients can now speak to patients via Xiao Bao for a longer time than they did in person.

"It (the robot) can go to the patients, and we can talk freely with patients through it to allay the concerns. With no risk of infection, we can easily talk with patients for half an hour or an hour without any problem," said Dong.

Haidian Hospital is among the first in China's capital city to employ the robot amid the epidemic outbreak. The hospital is also experimenting with uses of disinfectant robots and other service robots. All these measures are to minimise the dangers for medical workers.

"It (how to avoid infection) is complex but once you have a connection with patients, you have the risk of infection. The sicker the patients, the more danger the person is in. The longer one spends with a patient, the greater the risk one is in. And the closer one gets to the infected, the more dangerous. All the procedures the health workers conduct contain high risks," said Zhang Fuchun, the superintendent of Haidian Hospital.

The robot has also been put into use in Hubei Province, where the epicentre city of Wuhan is located. It is hoped that the likes of Xiao Bao might take even more heavy loads off the shoulders of health workers.

- CCTV+