RESEARCH released yesterday by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and Fudan University underscored the problems plaguing the city’s healthcare system while also offering suggestions for industry reforms.

According to the results of a survey conducted by the academy, local residents identified long queues, unnecessary tests and expensive prescription medicines as the biggest problems with the city’s health services. Specifically, among 2,000 respondents who participated in the poll, 38.6 percent complained about long lines.

As the academy explained, many people from outside of Shanghai flock to its hospitals, where the quality of treatment is seen as being better than many other parts of China, leading to extended waits for local patients. This phenomenon, it explained, highlights the importance of treatment systems that guide people to smaller hospitals for less serious medical problems.