On April 2, the 2024 Guangdong International Medical Service Promotion Conference was held in Guangzhou, bringing together consulate officials and their families from more than 30 countries. The conference aims to propel the development of top-tier hospitals and foster more international medical exchanges and cooperation in south China's Guangdong Province.

Delegations from 14 hospitals within the province provided information on their overall construction, specialized clinics, international exchanges, and overseas medical services. The event also featured an interactive session where all guests had the opportunity to receive on-site consultations with experts in traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, ophthalmology, dentistry, and more.

As pointed out by Chen Guangjun, Vice President of Guangdong People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, many major hospitals in Guangdong Province have built close cooperation with different countries in education, medical research, clinic construction, personnel exchange and so on. All these practices have been translated into great progress in global medicine.

Currently, Guangdong Province is home to a total of 60,000 medical institutions, providing more than 600,000 inpatient beds, with an annual capacity of nearly 900 million diagnoses and treatments. According to Wang Zilan, Vice President of the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, they have worked to innovate the medical service system for patients from all over the world. Its Nansha Division has recently opened an international section. For foreign expats living in Guangzhou, the hospital now provides multilingual services, including on-site nursing service, designated consultation, and medical check-ups for their family members.

Judyth Nsababera, Consul General of Uganda in Guangzhou, told GDToday that she enjoyed great convenience when seeking medical care in Guangzhou. As a woman expecting her motherhood soon, Consul General Nsababera who has stayed in Guangzhou for two years is delighted to see that more hospitals in Guangdong Province are able to provide multilingual services, allowing international patients to have a potent interaction with medical staff. "Sometimes the medical system is really quite intimate. I'm having a baby, so I need to be able to ask the right questions and have people who can really communicate," she said.

At the event, a guest from the UK, who has lived in Guangzhou for years, shared his colleague's experience of seeking medical services in Guangdong. "Just last year, my colleague's daughter had a potentially life-threatening kidney illness. My colleague was fortunate enough to contact experts from the Hospital of Jinan University, who were able to not only deliver quick consultation and review but also had a crew of medical workers on standby for her daughter," he said. "They were really professional and impressive."

"I know Guangzhou's capability well. We have great projects with hospitals like Sun Yat-sen University. They provide outstanding medical services," he said. Last week, he brought 31 members from 20 different universities from his home country to Guangdong, seeking partnerships in education and clinic services with universities and hospitals in Guangdong Province. He was excited that more medical cooperation projects are coming up between Guangdong and the UK.

As a province with a strong pool of medical services, Guangdong has actively worked to build an all-round system of international medical services, with a strong focus on such fields as respiratory, kidney, tumor, cardiovascular, precision medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine. In addition to providing high-quality medical services for foreign expats residing in Guangdong, hospitals at all levels will continue to conduct international exchanges and cooperation with their counterparts from different countries.