Sino-Czech health care cooperation on the rise

By Guan Kejiang from People’s Daily

A series of conferences on health care were held from Monday to Wednesday in the Czech Republic during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-day visit to the Central European country. According to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, health care cooperation has become a strategic bridge bolstering bilateral collaboration between the two nations.

 

As part of this cooperation traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been gaining ground and recognition in the Czech Republic.

 

Previously Sobotka had written a preface for a book introducing TCM published in the Czech language. Meanwhile, a TCM center opened last year in a hospital affiliated with the University of Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic — the first of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe and a flagship project for Sino-Czech health care cooperation.

 

The government-backed medicine center was a welcome sight for local patients. It has become extremely popular since its opening. The medical team, composing of experts from both countries, often work more than 10 hours a day to meet the patients.

 

Further development of this project is sure to better serve the public both in the Czech Republic and neighboring countries.

 

Last November, a memorandum of understanding concerning TCM expansion in the Czech Republic was signed by the Czech Ministry of Health, the University of Hradec Králové affiliated hospital, the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine affiliated Shuguang Hospital, as well as private Chinese conglomerate CEFC Energy Co. Ltd.

 

According to the agreement, CEFC will help fund the construction of TCM facilities in Central and Eastern European countries. The organization will also act as the vice chairman of a foundation aimed at promoting TCM in the Czech Republic and Central and Eastern Europe at large.

Jan Ruzicka, a special advisor to the Czech Minister of Health, told People’s Daily that strategic cooperation concerning many fields of health care continues to take shape as partnerships between hospitals affiliated to Czech universities and top Chinese institutions are established.

The Czech Ministry of Health is also working on clinical care, scientific research and public health with its Chinese counterparts in Hunan Province, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai municipalities, according to Ruzicka.

International exchanges programs for doctors, internships at hospitals and conferences on health care management have also launched by medical authorities in both countries, he added.

A Chinese doctor (center) sees a Czech patient in a Prague-based Tongrentang drugstore, a major TCM provider. (Photo: Guan Kejiang/People’s Daily)