The China East Team with 27 members served again in the most developed and rapidly changing urban areas along the east coast of China, sharing medical and dental knowledge, and helping health care facilities to improve and grow. The team went to Suzhou, near Shanghai. They also visited HuaiAn, a city in the northern JiangSu Province, about six hours drive from Suzhou. In the second week, they went to Xiamen in the Fujian Province to the south and Dalian in Liao Ning Province.

Team Activities Included:

• Medical/dental lectures and demonstrations. The dental team gave oral hygiene classes with a puppet show for patients, school children and their families.
  

• Ward rounds, out-patient clinics and discussions on the management of patients.
  

• CPR classes for hospital staff.
  

• We divided into two teams and visited Xiamen and Dalian.

Suzhou
The Suzhou Children’s Hospital is a 300-bed teaching hospital affiliated with the university. We held 13 lectures, two CPR and one oral hygiene workshop, an English class and a puppet show. Pharmacy lectures were also given at the university. Two IMED IV pumps and a box of tubing were presented to the PICU department. The China East Team has an on-going funding program to help the poor in the oncology ward with medication costs. The new OPD building is due to open in June 2006. Officials expressed an urgent need to improve the standard of nursing care and we hope to be able to help with this.

The Suzhou Psychiatric Hospital was founded about 100 years ago by an American missionary. It is one of the best psychiatric hospitals in the country. Mental health lectures and a CPR class were held there. 50 psychiatric patients received dental care.

HuaiAn
The HuaiAn Women and Children’s Hospital is a rapidly expanding 400-bed Obstetric/Paediatric teaching hospital. The highlight of our visit was participating in the second Hospital Science Week where a number of lectures, demonstrations and panel discussions were scheduled for hospital staff throughout the city. The team presented the Avery’s Textbook of Neonatology to the NICU department. Ten lectures, two CPR workshops, a dental puppet show and an English class were held. We also participated in the Asthma clinic and did consultations on children with cerebral palsy. A new building is under construction. We helped plan a compressed oxygen/air delivery system to serve the wards.

HuaiAn Daycare Centre and Elementary School has 1,000 students and is HuaiAn’s best daycare centre. We gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste to the children and held an oral hygiene demonstration and a puppet show for about 500 children and their families. The director told us, ”I am so impressed with your work. I am over 40 years old and this is the first time someone has shown me how to brush my teeth properly.”

Huangji County Hospital is a very small facility serving farmers. Only the dental team visited there. The team demonstrated root canal treatment and held oral hygiene classes and a puppet show for the children of an elementary school nearby. In previous years, the China East Team has provided funding for an X-ray machine and an U/S machine. This year, we hope to help cover the cost of a sterilizer for the dental department.

Future
There are many openings for the future:

In Xiamen where the team visited the Xiamen Women and Children’s Hospital. The hospital has recently moved into a new, well-equipped building. Our team gave lectures and held a CPR workshop. Health care workers from the nearby hospitals also attended. The dental team visited the hospital dental clinic and gave a lecture on gum disease and oral hygiene to the staff. They also visited the Cheng Mei County Elementary School, where oral hygiene and a puppet show were presented to 300 children. This county is mainly Buddhist and temples are everywhere.

In Dalian, a modern city in the province of Liao Ning on the northeast coast of China, the area referred to us for assistance is Dalijia, DDA ( Dalian Development Area ), a township of 16,000 people, mostly farmers. There are many poor families with chronic medical/mental illnesses requiring medical care which can cost over 30% of their income. Diabetes, arthritis and heart diseases are prevalent. We visited the homes of three poor families, made consultations at a small clinic, toured a psychiatric hospital and an old folks’ home. The Dalijia Hospital is old and desperately needs improvement in all areas. We hope to raise funds to assist in this area.

The China East team hopes to continue medical/dental teaching throughout eastern China. We will continue to offer medical and dental assistance and help cover health care costs for the poor, in rural and urban areas. We need to divide into two teams in order to cover the wide geographical area more efficiently and we also need to add an Obst/Gyn component for the two women’s hospitals.

With the rapid growth of the economy in China, urban hospitals have acquired increased funding for improvement both environmentally and technically, in an attempt to catch up to health care standards around the world. This puts the China East Team in a more important role in all areas of teaching and relationship building. This year, our team has demonstrated an unorganized unity, amongst ourselves and our Chinese friends.

For more information please contact the China East Team through the EMAS National Office at info@emascanada.org

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