A service standard focusing on the last chapter of people's lives and covering the whole life cycle of medical treatment, senior care, and funeral and internment was released recently to lift services and the professional level of relevant industries and consolidate the talent team.

Pooling the wisdom of professors, medical workers, health experts and social organizations, the service standard is the first of its kind in China and will be trialled in 12 senior-care homes and medical treatment institutions nationwide and gradually promoted and implemented.

The standard was raised by the Qingpu District Funeral Association and drafted by the School of Sociology and Political Science of Shanghai University, Shanghai Qingpu Li Ji Academy and Shanghai Fu Shou Yuan Public Welfare Foundation.

It provides a reference for the standardized work of funeral and internment social workers and helps establish a nursing care system involving hospice care and funeral and internment services, officials noted.

It also improves the life quality of those in the final chapter of their life, they added.

Hospice care, which began in the 1960s in the United States and Europe, is still a heavy topic and a new concept in China.

Gu Jin, director of the Peking University Shougang Hospital, said earlier that there was a high demand for hospice care on the Chinese mainland despite a late start and slow development.

Sun Wei, director of the bone tumor division of Shanghai General Hospital, said there were about 10,000 new cases of osteocarcinoma among children and teenagers in China each year, and it was still difficult to discuss death with them.

"Humanistic concern is necessary for medical science," Sun said during an earlier forum.