Several Taiwanese hospitals are offering medical assistance to the nation’s diplomatic allies in Latin America and the Caribbean in an effort to promote medical diplomacy, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said on Thursday.
Changhua Christian Hospital sent a six-member team of doctors and nurses to provide medical assistance in Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from April 5 to Sunday last week, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Deputy Director-General Lino Cheng (鄭力城) said.
The team helped train local medical personnel, as well as providing medical treatment to locals, Cheng said.
The Changhua-based hospital is sending another six-member team on a three-week mission to the two island nations today, Cheng said.
The second group’s trip is to last until June 14, as part of the hospital’s long-term efforts to help improve medical services in the two allies, Cheng said.
A team from Cathay General Hospital in Taipei has been in Paraguay to conduct artificial joint replacement surgeries in cooperation with Paraguayan Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare and a local hospital, Cheng said.
They were scheduled to perform 20 operations during a trip, which began on May 9, he added.
The operations being provided free-of-charge to the patients.
A representative from Taipei Medical University’s Center for Management and Development is scheduled to visit Panama next month to explore possibilities for medical cooperation, Cheng said.
The government has been working with Taiwanese hospitals to closely cooperate with many of the nation’s 22 diplomatic allies in providing public healthcare and medical assistance.
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