Doctors from across China recruited in Tibet to provide medical care

Over the past six decades, Tibet's medical sector has grown, with the CPC Central Committee initiating programs to bring in doctors from across the country. CGTN's Omar Khan went to the city of Linzhi, where medical practitioners from Guangdong Province are not only providing medical care but are also training local Tibetan doctors.

Nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, and situated in China's remote and mountainous southwest, Linzhi People's Hospital has become one of the region's most prestigious medical institutions. Established in 1966, the hospital boasts nearly 300 beds and spans an area over 70,000 square meters. Over 90 percent of the patients are local Tibetans, including those from other ethnic minorities. For them, changes in the medical field have brought new life and new hope.

Sixty years ago the region had merely three medical institutions. Fast-forward to today, nearly 1,500 clinics and hospitals have been established. And more significantly, Tibetans here are given subsidized, or sometimes even free, healthcare.

Nowadays a medical healthcare network is available in Tibet, combining traditional Chinese, Tibetan and Western methods.

With a variety of treatments and capabilities now in place, people from across the region travel to Linzhi. And for specific treatments, Dr. Huang Xiaozhong from Guangdong Province is making a big difference. He was involved in a medical aid project started in 2015. It spanned seven cities and areas of Tibet, including Lhasa. Doctors from different departments came as a group to help local hospitals improve their technical and medical capabilities.

But Dr. Huang's contributions go beyond the operating room. The chief physician has taken two Tibetans under his wing as apprentices, with the ultimate goal of passing his knowledge on to local doctors. This form of tutelage was perhaps unthinkable in the past. Dr. Huang believes that the future will one day rest in the hands of the local Tibetan people.

And it's exactly those benefits for local people that matter the most. For most, trekking days to get to this top-tier hospital is a small price to pay, if it means getting the best care for loved ones.