A patient is transferred across the sea by a helicopter in Zhoushan. [Photo/zhoushan.cn]

Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province is rapidly advancing its emergency medical response system by integrating sea, land, and air transport — offering new hope to residents of its remote islands.

A recent case on Liuheng Island — administered by the city — saw a heart attack patient airlifted to Zhejiang Putuo Hospital on the main island of Zhoushan in just 17 minutes.

To overcome challenges posed by limited local medical resources and inter-island travel, Zhoushan has accelerated the deployment in the current year of the combination of low-attitude delivery networks with medical services.

Helicopter landing pads are now planned for densely populated islands, while advanced technologies like 5G and augmented reality are improving pre-hospital communications. Real-time transmission of patient data helps to ensure that emergency rooms are ready before the patient arrives, drastically boosting the treatment speed.

Additionally, Zhoushan has launched drone routes for urgent blood deliveries — cutting supply times and improving emergency care. Air rescue capabilities have also been expanded offshore.

As part of the city's broader emergency care strategy, 27 emergency response sites have been established. This ensures average response radius of 3.5 kilometers in urban areas and 8 to10 km in rural areas.

In the year to date, Zhoushan has conducted 15 air rescues, 226 inter-island transfers, 55 offshore rescues, and 11 sea missions involving on-board medical staff — marking a major leap forwards in life-saving capacity.