Medical team visits Solomon Islands, forms relationship with sister hospital

        Medical personnel attached to the Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital (KMUH) left for the Solomon Islands Jan. 2 on a three-day trip to provide medical advice and sign a "sisterhood agreement" with Solomon's National Referral Hospital (NRH).

        The trip was sponsored by the ROC Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Department of Health (DOH) as part of an initiative aimed at strengthening the ROC's relations with its six allies in the South Pacific region.

        Lee Chuan-tong, head of MOFA's Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, announced during a routine press conference Jan. 3 that the ministry had been working side-by-side with the DOH to partner six Taiwanese hospitals with counterparts in six South Pacific allies. Medical teams from these Taiwanese hospitals will travel to these affiliated institutes to help them improve their medical services.

        Solomon's NRH and KMUH have been interacting closely for the past few months. An agreement to formalize the sister relationship between the two institutions was signed Jan. 4 in the Solomon Islands' capital city of Honiara, signifying the official launch of a series of collaborative projects in areas such as public health, hospital management and personnel training.

        The inking of the agreement was witnessed by the Solomon Islands' Prime Minister Sir Allan Kemakeza and ROC Ambassador Antonio Chen. Kemakeza said the establishment of the sister relationship was a big step forward in the country's health and medical sector.

        "This is a big step forward in the country's health development, especially when we have an additional technical assistance from the government and people of Taiwan through this Kaohsiung Medical University, as well as the Memorial Hospital in Kaohsiung. It is one of the top hospitals in Taiwan," the prime minister was reported as saying.

        As part of the new sister hospital project, the NRH has taken delivery of more than US$500,000 worth of equipment from Taiwan. This includes a new medical ultrasound imaging apparatus and two machines to help dental hygienists scale calculus.

        The leader of the Taiwanese delegation, Wang Gwo-jaw, is president of Kaohsiung Medical University. Wang said the school would like to help make the Solomons' NRH the region's top referral hospital. "We want to make the National Referral Hospital the referral hospital of the Pacific," Wang said, adding that his team would like to see Solomon Islanders be able to obtain medical treatment locally, rather than having to go overseas for treatment.

        The team was made up of eight doctors, one nurse and a medical technician. The next delegation to be dispatched from Taiwan is expected to travel to Honiara sometime in August.

        In addition to providing medical assistance to the ROC's South Pacific allies, MOFA is also working with the Institute for Information Industry and International Cooperation and Development Fund to collect 1,000 computers for delivery to these countries, Lee announced during the Jan. 3 press conference. The plan is to provide the computers free to the region's poor.