What this article covers
You take regular medication and need ongoing care. You have moved to mainland China. The task here is narrow: what to raise with a licensed clinician once you are here, so the conversation about your prescription starts on the right footing. This is not a guide that tells you to continue, substitute, or stop any medicine. Every item below is a question for a licensed clinician, not an instruction.
The route to licensed care
An official Shanghai hospital guide shows one local route to a licensed clinician and, if the clinician issues a prescription, to a hospital pharmacy. It sets out these steps: register at the hospital, see the doctor, receive a prescription (written on the page as chufang), then pay and collect the medicines from the hospital pharmacy (yaofang). The registration step is often called guahao.
Read this as a description of the general route, not as a snapshot of any one hospital's live system. An individual provider's current registration screens, app steps, and department names can differ from the guide. The guide is a municipal example and not a clinical source; it shows the shape of the path rather than the exact steps you will press on the day.
Medicine availability and prescription requirements must be checked with a licensed clinician or the hospital in your location; this municipal process guide does not establish clinical equivalence or medication rules.
Finding a hospital with language support
If language is a concern, look for a hospital that offers full-process foreign-language services. Beijing's Medical Guide for Foreigners lists hospitals with full-process foreign-language services and describes outpatient and payment routes. Use that listing to locate a hospital where registration and consultation can be followed in a shared language, not as a source of clinical guidance.
What to bring to the consultation
Before the appointment, prepare documentation a clinician can read. Settle these points beforehand:
- Do you have the original packaging for each medicine, including the printed leaflet where possible? A clinician may ask to see the physical pack.
- Do you have your earlier prescription and treatment records? Ask the hospital what records and language it can use; a clinician there can decide what else is needed.
Questions to raise with the licensed clinician
When you meet the clinician, keep the discussion to what they need to assess and to the local route to a prescription. Frame each point as a question:
- What is the local equivalent or the local availability of this medicine in China, and is it stocked by the hospital pharmacy?
- What documentation does this hospital ask for before a prescription can be issued or repeated?
- Which department or clinician should I ask about repeating or adjusting a prescription for ongoing care?
- How does this hospital's registration, consultation, prescription, and pharmacy collection work in practice for a returning visit?
Only a licensed clinician who has assessed you can decide whether any medicine should be continued, changed or stopped. These questions prepare that consultation.
When the ordinary path stalls
Sometimes the first department is not the right one, or the medicine is not stocked at that pharmacy, or the hospital's current screens do not match the general guide. If you are unsure which clinician to ask, ask the hospital's registration desk or its international service to direct you to the appropriate department. If a prescription cannot be issued on the first visit, ask what the hospital requires next and which documents would support a repeat request. When the official description and the provider's live process diverge, the registration desk is the place to confirm the actual steps.
For the wider steps of arriving and settling locally, the Expat China settling-in guide covers the broader picture; this article stays on the narrower question of what to raise with a clinician about ongoing medication. If something in the hospital process is unclear, the on-site web chat on this site can point you to the right desk to ask.
Sources used
The official sources below were read on 2026-09-28.