January 16, 2019
By Ibrahim Tarawallie
Chinese Ambassador, Wu Peng exchanging the signed donation certificate with Health Minister, Dr. Alpha Wurie
The Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone yesterday, on behalf of the Chinese government, donated medical supplies worth millions of dollars to Sierra Leone for onward use by the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital at Jui in the Western Rural district.
Wu Peng, together with the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie, also officially opened a Remote Pathological Diagnosis Platform stationed in the hospital.
In his statement, Ambassador Wu Peng said the platform will serve patients and also speed up the development of primary medical care in Sierra Leone.
“The platform will not only help our experts to diagnose the patients for guiding the normalized treatment, carrying out early screening of tumor and obtaining such data as morbidity rate of tumor at the same time,” he said.
He state that the platform will benefit more accurate diagnosis and standardized treatment to the patients, while recognizing the contribution made by colleagues from Hunan Cancer Hospital for establishing the platform.
According to Ambassador Wu Peng, drug shortage and poor equipment have been the bottlenecks that restricted sustainable development of the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital for some time now.
He explained that after the Health Ministry and the hospital management put forward a request for medicine and medical equipment support, the Chinese Government paid high attention and studied positively.
“As a quick response, Chinese government decided to donate regular medicines and medical equipment every year to the hospital with a view to improving the conditions of the hospital and provide patients with comprehensive and accurate treatment,” Ambassador Peng added.
The Chinese Ambassador recalled that during the Ebola scourge, Chinese Medical Team overcame difficulties and displayed their selfless and humanitarian spirit of healing the wounded and rescuing those at the point of death in order to provide timely and effective treatment to the patients.
Receiving the supplies, Health Minister, Dr. Alpha Wurie thanked the Chinese for their continuous support to Sierra Leone and assured that the medical supplies and diagnosis platform will be used for the intended purpose.
He said the hospital was supposed to be the basis for a teaching institution in the country but because of the difficulty in managing it, the past government requested China to provide personnel to run the facility.
He disclosed that following his visit to Hunan Province in China, discussions were confirmed to ensure that in the next two years, the hospital will become a core place for teaching health professionals in the country.
“We are still at the rudimentary stage as a country in which we look at infectious diseases most of the time. And the advent of Ebola suggested that there is a long way to go on infectious diseases but has created a scientific place in the country,” he said.
He added that it was welcome news that with diagnostic platform, samples will be provided in the hospital but will be analyzed in China and brought back to the country.