Doctor-sharing making a difference in Tibetan hospitals

Since 1995, China's central government has been sending doctors to the Tibet autonomous region to improve its healthcare system.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, 32-year-old Lyu Tao - another Beijing doctor working in the obstetrics and gynecology department of Lhasa People's Hospital, who came to Tibet six months ago from Beijing Tsinghua Chang Gung Hospital - operates on patients while being observed by three local doctors.

In the first week Yu Yabin's team was in Tibet, a 2-year-old suffering from pneumonia was treated.

The child had swallowed a melon seed that was stuck in his windpipe.

As the hospital in Lhasa did not have a bronchoscope - a piece of medical equipment that is used to inspect and pass other instruments into the airways - the doctors were unable remove the seed.

Yu asked Beijing Children's Hospital to lend them a professional bronchoscope, which the team was able to use to operate on the child two weeks later.

To prevent a repeat of such events, Yu's team bought a new bronchoscope for the hospital's pediatrics department and trained two local doctors to use it.

The team's next goal is to set up a diagnosis center for heart disease.

"They have a solid foundation here, but there is a lack of high-tech devices, so we hope to create a cardiac care unit in the hospital," said Yu, adding that they were also focused on improving the level of prenatal care in the region.

"With the thin air and risk of high blood pressure, it is important to encourage Tibetan pregnant women to have regular examinations."