STORY: Chinese, Sierra Leonean hospitals ink deal to bolster medical cooperation
SHOOTING TIME: Feb. 22, 2024
DATELINE: Feb. 23, 2024
LENGTH: 00:05:38
LOCATION: Freetown
CATEGORY: MEDICINE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital
2. various of a signed agreement
3. various of the signing ceremony
4. various of patients receiving treatment at the hospital
5. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): YAN JIN, Director of nursing department of Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University
6. various of patients receiving treatment at the hospital
7. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SARAH CONTH, President of Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital
8. various shots of patients receiving treatment at the hospital

STORYLINE:

A Chinese hospital on Thursday signed an agreement with the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital to boost medical cooperation between the two countries at Jui, a town in the suburb of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

Under the deal, the Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, one of the top-notch hospitals in central China's Hunan Province, will provide more medical assistance to its counterpart, particularly in nursing.

According to Yan Jin, the director of the Chinese hospital's nursing department, the hospital boasts a decades-long cooperation with its African counterparts by dispatching nearly 20 medical personnel to the continent.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): YAN JIN, Director of nursing department of Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University
"More than 20 physicians and healthcare workers come to this hospital, and five nurses come here to work with you together. In 2018, one pediatrician came here with the UNICEF program and established SCPU here in the hospital. We come here to exchange training, and this year and next year, several health staff here will come to China and receive training, and communicate and cooperate with us. We want to try to find more opportunities for our long-term collaboration and exchange in the future."

Sarah Conth, president of the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital, noted that her hospital's special care baby unit has faced multiple challenges including feeding the babies and training the medical staff. 

She expressed her gratitude to the Chinese side for always reaching out and helping the hospital improve its practices.

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): SARAH CONTH, President of Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital
"Among the challenges, two of them have been solved by your project. Feeding the babies and training our staff are among the challenges that we face in the unit. So if you come in to bridge the gap between two of these challenges, then we know that our successes are going to improve tremendously. We want to thank you for identifying these challenges, feeding the patients, and giving diapers, because they are babies coming to these facilities. We don't even have diapers to use. So with this donation coming in and this project, it will help our nurses increase their clinical skills and improve their practices." 

The Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital, where the Chinese medical teams are based, is one of the largest comprehensive hospitals in Sierra Leone. 

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Freetown.
(XHTV)