Shanghai, October 2026 — Carlo Dragonetti from Italy came to the emergency department of Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital with serious knee pain. His visit was one patient’s story inside a larger picture: a busy public-hospital emergency and trauma service that the city is counting on as it builds a layered network for expatriates, international travelers and other global residents.

A hospital known for trauma

Shanghai has rolled out an International Medical Service standard and public-hospital international care pilots, spanning tertiary centers and specialized international facilities. Within that network, Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital is known for complex, time-critical injury care — a strength that matters to visitors and foreign workers in the city.

“Our emergency unit handles 1,500 to 1,600 visits daily, among which 400 to 500 are trauma cases,” said Ma Xin, president of the hospital. “It is widely recognized locally for unmatched expertise in fractures and traumatic injuries.” A dedicated acute pain service is built into the emergency workflow, treating pain as the fifth vital sign. Clinicians give timely pain relief while patients wait for imaging, reduction or surgery. The hospital was also the first public hospital in the city to offer pain management in this way.

One room, many steps

For overseas patients, the hospital points to its one-stop hybrid trauma suite as a decisive advantage. Instead of moving a critically injured patient again and again — from triage to radiology to a separate resuscitation bay to a distant operating theatre — the team keeps the patient in the same resuscitation space.

There the patient can receive a rapid whole-body CT scan, with AI-supported analysis to flag brain injury, internal bleeding, pneumothorax and visceral rupture. Orthopedics, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery and general surgery specialists gather on site for a multidisciplinary discussion and set surgical priorities.

Nearly 70 percent of severe pelvic fractures across Shanghai are managed at this center. Inside the hybrid room, doctors can first use digital subtraction angiography to stop life-threatening bleeding, then move on to staged fracture fixation and visceral repair in the same unit. The hospital says this parallel model can take a severely injured patient from arrival to initial life-saving intervention in as little as about 40 minutes — ahead of the widely cited “golden hour” trauma target.

Built for people far from home

Bilingual clinical capacity underpins the international pathway. For a patient like Carlo, that means being able to explain knee pain, understand the plan, and move through screening, imaging and consultation without the language barrier that often slows care abroad.

As more foreign residents and travelers use Shanghai’s public hospitals, stories like his are becoming a regular part of emergency work — not only dramatic rescues, but also the everyday business of assessing pain, running the right scan, and giving clear answers in a language the patient can use.

Editor: Chen Qing

If you need any help with medical care in Shanghai/China, be free to let us know at Chenqing@ShanghaiDoctor.cn.

Translated and adapted from City News Service / Shanghai Daily, citynewsservice.cn, “Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital Emergency: World-Class Trauma Care for International Patients”.