Chinese Medical Team's Medical Support to Bishoftu General Hospital

Along with the provision of free medical service, the Chinese medical team has donated medical equipment and consumables, worth 500,000 birr, to Bishoftu General Hospital.

By Girmachew Gashaw (The Ethiopian Herald) |

Ethiopia and China reiterated interest to strengthen public health cooperation recently as the 19th medical team donated medical equipment worth 500,000 birr to Bishoftu General Hospital. It has also been providing medical service for five consecutive days.

People who received medical treatment from the team also appreciated the endeavor and allegiance of medical professionals to serving people without hesitation. They also told that the Chinese traditional medicine and the magical charm of acupuncture are deeply loved and praised.

A 6-year-old child lives with a nerve related illness in small town called Bishoftu, 50 km south of the capital Addis Ababa. This writer met the kid’s father Philipos Ayalew, who has been taking care of his child when he was receiving medical treatment at China Medical Team Center.

Philipos remembers his son who happened to be beset by to various sort of diseases ever since his infant stage. However, the free curative medical service bestowed by medical team helped him a lot.

“My child could hardly walk due to the health problem that he had faced. The pain also kept him on crying and crying a lot. In vain I went to various hospitals,” Philipos said.

Zerfeshiwal Kebede is another beneficiary from free medical service. She had been getting physiotherapy at Bishoftu hospital. She told The Ethiopian Herald that she had traveled close to 100km from her home town Wolega, south of the capital Addis Ababa, to get the treatment at the hospital.

The 60-year-old Amelework is also one of the patients who has been able to get the free service at Bishoftu General Hospital.”My health condition has improved now, after the treatment I received here by the Chinese physicians,” she said.

Along with the provision of free medical service, the medical team has also donated medical equipment and consumables to the hospital. According to the leader of team Zhang Xiao Yang the medical equipment will enable the hospital in its quest towards quality health care service.

The 19th Chinese medical team is based at Tirunesh-Beijing General Hospital. The team drown from various professions and has 16 members.

Team leader and Chief Physician Yang said that the whole medical team has been in Ethiopia for nine months. “We are currently working at Tirunesh-Beijing General Hospital in Akaki-Kality Sub-city of Addis Ababa. Since we came here we have been helping to do some new operations and we accomplished successful eye operation through microscope, which is the first one in that hospital. In the coming days, we are going to have the tel-medicine.”

According to Yang, the Chinese Government has dispatched medical teams to African countries since 1963. And a lot of big hospitals in China are responsible for sending specialists for African countries. Many of the volunteer doctors are proud to have the opportunity to serve people in African countries. Helping others is one of the Chinese culture. Help is what we have. Since we are here, the team is thinking about how to help this hospital, how to do new things and change the hospital and I am very satisfied by the performance of the team, ” he said.

Appreciating the every growing developmental relations between the two nations, Urban Development and Housing Bureau Head with the rank of Deputy President of Oromia Regional State Abiy Ahmed expressed his hope that the two countries could strengthen cooperation in various fields and bring more benefits to the people of both nations.

Liu Yu, Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia, in a ceremony organized for equipment donation and free medical service held at Bishoftu General Hospital yesterday and China Embassy in Ethiopia, Economic and Commercial counselor’s Ms. Liu Yu said that China will help African countries, including Ethiopia, strengthen their public health service and control system through building up the African Center for Disease Control, which will be established in Ethiopia.

Recounting that China began to dispatch medical team since 1974, Ms. Liu Yu added that China will continue to send medical teams to Ethiopia in a bid to increase access to medical service. China also encourages more Chinese companies to invest in pharmaceutical industry to increase Ethiopia’s success to medicine, and help improve its capacity for independent and sustainable development in the area of medical care and public health, she added.

On the occasion, the 19th Chinese Medical Team donated 23 medical equipment 10 worth over 500,000 birr to the Bishoftu General Hospital. Over the past five days, 15 Chinese doctors have been supplying a serious of medical services to resident of Bisoftu town. Diagnosis, surgery , health consultation and academic lectures were some of the tasks professionals engaged in.

Chinese volunteers have made positive contributions to Ethiopia’s medical system development and to the longstanding friendship between the two countries. It was recounted that the first China Medical team, Mr. Meib Gengnian, devoted to the health service here , for which he won the great respect from the local people. His deeds are still being told at Jimma town of Ethiopia where he was buried.

Source: The Ethiopian Herald
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