Friday last week, Health Minister Hon. Dr Culwick Togamana and officials from the Ministry of Health alongside the China Ambassador to Solomon Islands, His Excellency Mr. Li Ming had the opportunity to visit the National Referral Hospital to see for themselves the work and support of the China Medical Team at the hospital.
The China Medical Team, which consists of two senior Medical Doctors and one senior acupuncturist of Traditional Chinese Medicine have been in the country early this year providing support at the NRH’s medical ward with patient treatment and care but also transferring important medical knowledge and skills to clinicians including rehabilitation centre where the acupuncturist has been providing acupuncture service to many patients at the hospital suffering from paralysis, long bouts of pain and numbness which also includes those caused by medical conditions such as stroke, hypertension etc.
Acupuncture and Moxibustion are external therapies of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Such, therapies require acupuncturist to diagnose the nature and location of disease by observing, listening, questioning and feeling of the pulse. With cautious acupoints choosing customized for individual patient, acupuncturist treats the symptoms with needle and moxibustion.
At the rehabilitation centre, the acupuncturist Dr Jack Lei demonstrates with patients there how acupuncture is conducted and talks about the many patients whom he had been treating for pain relief, immobility problems or numbness due to injury or other events and even stroke amongst many other medical cases.
Also providing feedback to the visiting delegation was Director Physiotherapy Rehabilitation Division, Elsie Taloafiri described the Acupuncturist Dr Lei as very passionate about his work and has been working very hard and for long hours many times beyond official working hours.
“More importantly is that patients whom have consented to receive the acupuncture treatment are seeing positive results and the numbers are increasing”, said Mrs. Taloafiri.
She thanked PRC for the support in this regard while using the occasion to highlight some of the challenges in terms of space and manpower to the officials who listened and took notes of the concerns raised.
The delegation also visited Doctor Carry Xu and Linda Mu Medical Doctors supporting the medical ward at NRH where they learned of the many good works and support rendered by the two, including knowledge and skills transferred to clinicians.
Health Minister in response to the visit thanked China stating that their support in acupuncture has now provided an alternative option for their patients and also broadens the scope of care and treatment at NRH.
“More importantly it is with great excitement that we have learned that any patients undergoing acupuncture are reporting improvements to their bodies. This will be an area where my Ministry will further look into to ensure that we support our local medical professionals who will pursue further education in the area of Acupuncture”,
“I am also grateful to the other members of the China medical team for their support in our NRH medical ward. Their qualification and expertise in certain areas of medicine, patient care and treatment will greatly bolster local capacity and they transfer knowledge and skills to our staff”, explained Dr Togamana.
His Excellency Li Ming China Ambassador to Solomon Islands said that the medical doctors including the acupuncturist are part of the health cooperation between the governments of China and Solomon Islands and China is very pleased to have provided support in this regard.
“China will continue to work closely with the Ministry of Health under the guidance of the health cooperation and ensure that where support is needed in terms of manpower or technical expertise, China will provide”, assured Mr. Li.
-MHMS Press