On December 31, 2021, one day before the New Year,
Jian (a pseudonym), a baby suffered from congenital heart disease (CHD) with only “1mm of blood flow”, was finally discharged from the hospital after a rescue campaign across 800 kilometers.
"Thanks the doctor and head nurse for giving our child a new lease on life." Ms. Mai, Jian's mother, sent a banner and two pictures to the expert team of the GDPH Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases. One of the pictures was painted by Jian's sister, called "Born under the Red Flag", and the other picture painted by Jian’s brother was about the happy life of Jian with his family after being discharged from the hospital, which served as an expression of deep gratitude to the experts.
Being discharged from the hospital does not mean being left aside. GDPH medical experts worked with Maoming People's Hospital and Huazhou Third People's Hospital to conduct a three-party remote medical consultation for the follow-up treatment plan of Jian after returning home, and establish a long-term mechanism to hold consultations in case of any other difficult and critical cases occurred in the primary communities.
If quality medical resources can be available to people living one kilometer further in the primary communities, people can travel ten thousand kilometers less when seeking for medical treatment.
The "one millimeter" reflects the precision of medical skills of GDPH as a high-level hospital in Guangdong, and the "eight hundred kilometers" represents the distance of passing on love between Guangzhou and Maoming and boosting rural revitalization, which is related to the delivery of quality medical resources to people at the grassroots across “ ten thousand kilometers”.
Wang Shushui (first from left), director of the Department of Pediatric Cardiology of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, and Yan Qiuping (first from right), head nurse, accepted the two paintings presented by Jian's parents.
"One Millimeter"
It happened in an ordinary charitable clinic.
On December 18, experts from the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Institute of Mental Health of GDPH boarded a bus at dawn to Pingding Town, Huazhou, Maoming. They were organized and led by the GDPH Committee of the CPC to carry out a disease screening activity called "Providing free medical services in good faith, a trip to Pingding" from 800 kilometers away.
Pingding was one of the most remote towns in the mountain areas of Guangdong, located at the border of Guangdong and Guangxi. It took over six hours by bus to get there. The bus was once stuck on the country road by height clearance, but finally reached the hotel at 2:00 pm. "Don't make folks wait too long." After a simple lunch, the doctors rushed to the Central Elementary School in Pingding Town at 2:30.
Pingding town is the target of medical assistance by GDPH and two other units. GDPH sent two personnel to form a poverty alleviation team, and the first secretary Shen Tiemei has spread the news that free medical treatment would be provided by GDPH earlier, hoping to help the surrounding folks in need.
"The great expert has come to our town." "The charitable clinic is set up right on our doorstep." The news were spread to all the villagers nearby. On the first day of the clinic, the doctors focused on the screening of CHD among children. Many villagers took their kids to see the doctor after over one-hour journey by motorcycle, and some people even came from the neighboring Guangxi Province. At 2:30 when the doctors arrived, people had been waiting in a long line outside the door.
Wang Shushui, director of the Department of Pediatric Cardiology, is performing an ultrasound examination on a child.
The doctors saw the children face to face, and performed imaging screenings if necessary. Wang Shushui, director of the Department of Pediatric Cardiology, performed cardiac color ultrasound on the children in person: "Doctors must perform ultrasound examinations themselves, so as to have a better knowledge of the details of some critical diseases, which is also a tradition of our institute.”
On the first day, the expert team screened more than 200 children for CHD. Wang Shushui and his colleagues kept busy until the evening before they finished their work.
At 8:30 next day, the team went to the Huazhou Third People's Hospital to conduct a charitable clinic.
This day, the queue for medical treatment was even longer. Wang Shushui walked by the queue while carefully observing the crowd. He saw Jian, a baby swaddled in cloths, developing obvious CHD symptoms: blue skin color, shortness of breath.
After ultrasound examination, Wang Shushui and other on-site experts diagnosed Jian as a critical CHD patient. There was only 1 mm of blood flow left to support the needs of the whole body. The child could die in a few minutes, no more than a day or two.
Huang Lihong (center), Party secretary and director of Maoming Health Bureau, and Zhou Lin (right), Party secretary of GDPH, are at the site of the charitable clinic.
Huang Lihong, Party secretary and director of Maoming Health Bureau, and Zhou Lin, Party secretary of GDPH, immediately formed a temporary working group on the spot. The health system of Maoming worked with Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital and other parties to send much-needed medicine for the child and coordinate a rescue across 800 kilometers between Maoming and Guangzhou.
Luo Dandong, deputy director of the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit 2, volunteered to escort the child to GDPH with the medical team; Wen Shusheng, director of the Department of Pediatric Heart Surgery, led the medical team to successfully perform the surgery with a fine technique comparable to "lettering with a pin".
On December 24, Jian recovered smoothly after surgery and was transferred to the general ward.
On December 31, Jian was successfully discharged from the hospital and welcomed a new life before the upcoming New Year.
A group photo taken by Jian’s parents with the medical staff after the child being discharged.
"Eight Hundred Kilometers"
Jian was unfortunate, but was lucky as well. He was only one of the 21 children diagnosed as CHD patients during the screening by GDPH in the charitable clinic this time.
The charitable clinic and emergency rescue is only one of the actions of GDPH to help Pingding Town, Maoming City.
At the end of June 2021, according to the relevant deployment requirements of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee and the People’s Government of Guangdong, led by the Provincial Bureau of Public Complaints and Proposals, Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital worked with Guangdong Industry Polytechnic to form a resident team in Pingding Town to provide assistance to the town and the villages. Led by the Party committee and based on its advantages, GDPH has brought medical resources to this mountainous town.
Shen Tiemei, the first secretary, and Liu Tao, member of the work team, visited each household patiently and helped the local people to strengthen the results of poverty alleviation. "We’ve learned that among 25 key monitoring households that should avoid returning to poverty in Pingding Town, there are 19 people with mental illnesses. We hope that we can prevent them from becoming poor again due to illness by giving full play to our advantages as a health institution, and promote the health of local people." Shen Tiemei reported the local situation to the Party committee of GDPH, and the hospital sent two psychotherapists and 18 cardiovascular specialists to conduct CHD screening and a large-scale charitable clinic.
For the grassroots people who urgently need to cure difficult and critical illnesses, not only will GDPH provide high-level medical treatment, but also consider to join hands with Maoming People's Hospital and Huazhou Third People's Hospital to gradually construct a disease monitoring and prevention system in Pingding Town, so as to advance the time point of health intervention, more effectively prevent people returning to poverty due to illness, and improve the health of the local people.
"Without a healthy population, we will be unable to achieve moderate prosperity. Thanks to the charitable clinic arranged by the Party committee of GDPH to help the people in need in the countryside, it has a positive effect in helping our locality to achieve rural revitalization.” Deng Zeyou, Party secretary of the CPC Huazhou Municipal Committee, said so in an interview with a reporter from Nanfang Magazine.
During the visit to Pingding Town, the Party committee of GDPH visited the poor households, bring the condolence money and digital manometer (medical) to them. In addition to giving medical services and supplies, GDPH also offered technology and talents.
Zhou Lin, Party secretary of GDPH, introduced that the hospital would cooperate with Maoming People's Hospital to fully support the development of Huazhou Third People's Hospital in terms of hardware and software: "Cultivating medical talents at grassroots level is the key to improving medical services in villages and towns. We will welcome medical staff from Pingding Town, Huazhou City and Maoming City to conduct further study and training at our hospital. Meanwhile, our two members of the work team will also actively carry out a series of training for village doctors and grassroots hospital managers."
Pingding Town, Maoming is 800 kilometers away from Guangzhou. It used to be a long distance, but now is shortened because of the medical assistance provided via resident work team in the town led by the Party committee.
Through the electronic screen and camera, experts from Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital conducted medical consultations with Maoming People's Hospital and Huazhou Third People's Hospital.
"Ten Thousand Kilometers"
Pingding Town, Maoming in 800 kilometers away is only one of the stops of GDPH's "Providing free medical services in good faith” campaign.
"On the one hand, GDPH needs to strengthen the construction of a high level hospital; on the other hand, we should respond to the call of making quality medical resources available to more people in remote regions. Over these years, we have sent excellent medical teams to help a large number of grassroots communities in areas such as Fogang in Qingyuan and Luhe in Shanwei. At the same time, via the telemedicine platform, we have made high-level medical services available to more people in the east, west and north of Guangdong, making our due contribution to the balanced development of quality medical resources." Yu Xueqing, president of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, introduced that the sinking of medical resources from GDPH will form a regular mechanism.
Yu Xueqing, president of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital.
If quality medical resources can be available to people living one kilometer further in the primary communities, people can travel ten thousand kilometers less when seeking for medical treatment.
Guangdong Health Commission has included "high-level hospital construction” and "grassroots health management" into the ten most urgent issues to be solved for people seeking for medical treatment, and is constructing a "from top to bottom" health pattern.
The "top" means "high-level construction". Guangdong has vigorously promoted the construction of 50 high-level hospitals, which successfully covers 21 cities above the prefecture level. The "bottom" means "support to grassroots". Guangdong has vigorously enhanced the capacity of primary medical institutions through one-on-one assistance by the top high-level hospitals to the people's hospitals in several cities, so that the locals can enjoy quality medical services at home. The talents trained for the recipient hospitals can benefit them forever. Some hospitals even directly opened branches in primary communities to serve the people in the east, west and north of Guangdong.
The expansion and sinking of high-quality medical resources allow more people to have access to medical services, and thus ensure the quality of medical treatment. That is an active practice of Guangdong as a major medical province to balance the distribution of medical resources.
Balance indicates the direction of the flow of medical resources, and is the secret of common prosperity.
A rescue with the precision of "a millimeter", a long-term assistance across "800 kilometers", and the "ten thousand kilometers" for the benefits of a large number of people at grassroots level reveal the impressive belief of "People First" and "Life First".
Source丨WeChat official account of Nanfang Magazine
