China's foreign aid workers help boost local medical capacity

Medical aid workers from China said on Thursday that they have not only offered health services for people in foreign countries but also helped boost local medical capacity.

Wang Zhenchang, vice-president of Beijing Friendship Hospital, was head of the 24th batch of medical aid group sent to Guinea from 2014 to 2016 when the country was hit by an Ebola outbreak.

"We were assigned to train 1,000 local public health professionals in Guinea within two months, which itself was a risky task because giving training would result in closer contact with local people," he said, adding that the team had pulled through challenges and successfully trained 1,600 public health specialists.

Wang added that Chinese doctors introduced different minimally evasive surgery approaches to local hospitals and set up training courses for local young doctors.

Wang shared his experiences during a news conference held by the State Council Information Office.

Wu Dexi, a cardiologist at The First Affiliated Hospital to Sun Yat-sen University, was dispatched to the Commonwealth of Dominica three times as a foreign medical aid worker.

"At a hospital, I gave lectures, toured hospital wards with junior doctors, discussed cases and demonstrated advanced technologies to enable local doctors to master new tools and knowledge," he said.

Wu added that so far, seven health workers from Dominica are studying at his hospital in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

Chinese foreign medical aid teams were awarded the title of "role model of the times" by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee last month as this year marks the 60th anniversary of the country's first medical team dispatched to Algeria.