The Ministry of Health has asked local health authorities to make detailed plans for transferring patients from quake-hit Yushu prefecture to hospitals in other areas to ensure timely and effective treatment.

Local health authorities, both in quake-hit Qinghai Province and provinces that will receive the patients, must establish medical stations, check patients' conditions, and organize competent medical personnel to treat and transfer the patients, the ministry said in a circular issued Thursday night.

The ministry asked local health authorities to set up teams to lead the transfer, coordinate available medical resources to prepare enough beds, and to make a transfer timetable based on patients' treatment needs.

The circular also included a to-do-list for transferring and treating patients, in which the ministry outlined the principles of treatment and the specific requirements of the transfer.

By 8 a.m. Friday, some 583 patients had been transferred to hospitals outside Yushu by air, with 37 sent to Chengdu, Sichuan Province, 106 to Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and 317 to Xining, Qinghai's capital city.

Hospitals in Xining also received 110 patients who came by car or bus and another 204 who got there by themselves.

About 100 patients are waiting at Batang Airport in Yushu to board flights, the health ministry said.

According to the ministry, 669 medical workers from across the country had arrived in Yushu by 8 a.m. Friday and immediately began to treat patients and guide local doctors.