BEIJING: Liu Haixia, a doctor from the critical care medicine department of Beijing Youan Hospital, said she is proud to be one of the medical experts from other parts of China who have gone to aid hospitals in the Xizang autonomous region, because they have made a difference that has saved lives.
Liu was among the 21 medical experts from hospitals in Beijing who went to assist the People’s Hospital of Lhasa in 2021. Since August 2015, teams of medical experts from a number of different fields have been sent by provinces and cities to raise the overall level of healthcare offered by hospitals in Xizang. Liu said that this model, in which the teams of experts are paired with specific hospitals, allows the doctors from different departments to work together to introduce new medical technology, conduct complicated operations and improve the training of doctors in Xizang.
“The local people really trust us. And they now can have many diseases treated on their doorstep, which is in fact lifesaving,” said Liu, who spent a year at the hospital in Lhasa, the regional capital.
Nyima, deputy director of the People’s Hospital of Lhasa, said that in 2015 it only had 240 beds available but the number has now reached 550, adding that the number of operations performed at the hospital in 2023 had more than doubled compared with 2015. “Thanks to the doctors from Beijing who come to assist us, we can now perform more complicated operations and treat patients with complicated diseases. Their continuous support also means that the local people are able to receive quality and convenient healthcare services all the time,” Nyima said. Improving Xizang’s healthcare system is only one aspect that the pairing-up assistance program aims to achieve. The program, which has been carried out for 30 years, has tremendously promoted the region’s social and economic development and significantly improved the lives of local residents, according to people involved in the program.
In 1994, the central government made a strategic decision to rally national support for Xizang. Under the policy of pairing-up assistance for the region, 17 provinces and cities as well as 78 central State organs and 27 centrally administered State-owned enterprises are designated to assist in specific areas of Xizang, injecting strong impetus into the development of the plateau region. –Agencies
