Shenzhen launches a pilot program to assign parking “registration numbers” to vehicles, helping to ease the city’s hospital parking crunch.

Plagued by both a shortage of high-quality medical resources and an inadequate supply of parking spaces, the difficulty of finding parking at hospitals has become a persistent urban problem. On the 16th, Shenzhen unveiled the “e‑Yue Ting” hospital parking reservation system, which integrates data with “Health 160” and hospital official accounts. This allows users to reserve a parking spot after booking an appointment, helping to alleviate the longstanding parking challenges faced by hospitals.

Currently, Shenzhen traffic police, in collaboration with the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission, are leveraging information technology and a “shared‑resource” approach to pilot an appointment‑based parking system at three hospitals in the city. After registering for an appointment online, patients can also reserve a parking space. The “e‑Yue Ting” hospital‑specific parking reservation program was developed by the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Construction & Development Group.

According to a spokesperson from the Shenzhen Traffic Police, “e‑Yue Ting” pre-allocates parking quotas based on appointment times. Once all quotas have been allocated, the system dynamically releases additional slots throughout the day using data from the parking lot’s barrier‑gate access records. When parking spaces reach 100% occupancy, users are notified that the available reservation capacity has been fully booked.

The pilot hospitals include Shenzhen Children’s Hospital, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, and Shenzhen Second People’s Hospital, all located in the city center. These institutions rank among the top in the city in terms of patient volume and quality of care, serving patients from across the entire municipality. In addition, off-peak parking spaces at nearby shopping malls and office buildings have been allocated to patients, and these are bundled together with hospital parking for unified reservation by the public.

Starting on the 16th, patients can make an online parking reservation when registering; full‑day implementation begins on the 23rd. By default, the entry time for the reserved parking space is one hour before the scheduled registration and consultation time, and the maximum parking duration is three hours. The parking reservation will be automatically canceled upon cancellation of the appointment.

In addition, patients registering on-site and visitors to inpatients can use official WeChat accounts such as Shenzhen Traffic Police, Shenzhen Parking, and the Shenzhen Municipal Health Commission to reserve parking spaces in advance, then enter their appointment number (or hospitalization number) to receive applicable discounts or exemptions.

The hospital has designated separate lanes for vehicles with appointments and those without, with queuing conducted on a lane-by-lane basis. When parking spaces are limited, vehicles in the appointment‑only queue are given priority.

A relevant official from the Shenzhen Traffic Police stated that, to uphold the fairness of the reservation system, they will continuously monitor users’ compliance. If a vehicle is found to have reserved a parking space but neither entered the lot nor canceled the reservation, or if it exceeds the allotted parking time after booking, or if a user deliberately fails to present proof of eligibility for a parking discount—among other breaches—they may, depending on the circumstances, be restricted from using the reservation‑based parking service.