PRESS RELEASE – THE St. Jude Hospital has received additional specialist support from a team of doctors from Changhua Christian Hospital.
During a welcome ceremony for the team, Dr. Nina Kao, CEO of the Overseas Mission Centre, announced that this was the twentieth visit by a team from Changhua Christian Hospital from the Republic of China Taiwan.
“Not only do we send our medical team to St. Jude Hospital, we also receive many of the staff from St. Jude Hospital to visit the Changhua Christian Hospital,” Dr. Kao said.
Over 40 staff members from St. Jude Hospital have visited and trained at Changhua Christian Hospital. Acting Medical Director at St. Jude Hospital, Dr. Sylvester Francois, applauded the consistency of support from their sister hospital in providing health services to the people of St. Lucia.
Said Dr. Francois: “Through this group of volunteers, we welcome the Taiwanese experience in our midst. We welcome the injection of new thoughts and new ways of addressing old problems…And as a footnote, I would like to say hello to our staff who recently returned from Taiwan. You have increased the pool of staff we have here at St. Jude who have visited Changhua Christian Hospital.
“Changhua Christian Hospital was recently re-certified by JCI. It now meets all the needs for accreditation for a modern international hospital and I think this is no mean feat. This is a tremendous achievement and I hope you have learned during your stay at Changhua Christian Hospital how an internationally accredited hospital should operate as it relates to your areas,” Dr. Francois continued.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Felix St. Hill, expressed gratitude on behalf of the government of St. Lucia to Douglas C.T. Shen, Ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan), for the tremendous assistance provided to St. Lucia over the years.
“St. Lucia recently received a batch of graduate doctors from Taiwan and of course in short time this batch of doctors will be undergoing their internship programme within our medical institutions in St. Lucia,” St. Hill said. “These developmental initiatives will no doubt do well for our present situation in St. Lucia as we seek to not only increase our level of services but also to improve our infrastructure within the health services in St. Lucia.”
Ambassador Shen indicated that over the last 10 years over 40 nurses and 80 doctors have visited and served more than 6,000 patients at the St. Jude Hospital.
“Taiwan is a very good friend of St. Lucia. We try to do our best to mutually help our St. Lucian friends through agriculture, through ICT — you name it. This year, we have already discussed with your government, we are going to sign a memorandum of understanding to make sure the future collaboration between the government of St. Lucia and Taiwan can go very smooth,” Ambassador Chen said.
The medical team will be in St. Lucia for three weeks to support the St. Jude Hospital in the areas of ear, nose and throat, obstetrics and gynecology, Chinese medicine, the Intensive Care Unit, Emergency Room, Occupational Therapy and Pediatrics.