Chinese Government dispatches 23rd medical team to Lomé-Commune Health District Hospital and Kara Regional Hospital

Project narrative

On November 22nd, 2019, the 23rd medical team arrived in Togo, and in November, a rotation ceremony was held at Lomé University. The ceremony involved both the old and new medical teams as well as staff from the Confucius Institute at Lomé University. The 23rd Chinese medical team comprises ten specialists in general surgery, traumatology, general medicine, acupuncture, gynecology, and laboratory medicine. They will perform their work at the Lomé Regional Hospital Center (CHR-Lomé Commune or CHU-Lomé) in the capital city of Lomé and Kara Regional Hospital (also known as Centre Hospitalier Régional de Kara or Hôpital chinois de Tomdè or CHR-Kara-Tomdè or Centre hospitalier régional de Kara Tomdè) in the city of Kara. While serving at CHU-Lomé, an anesthesiologist from the 23rd medical team, Li Yanjun, conducted training courses where he taught local doctors nerve block anesthesia techniques, compared to the usual ketamine-based general anesthesia or single spinal anesthesia. Nearly a month after the 23rd Chinese Medical Team to Togo arrived on November 23rd, 2019, they ventured to Kpele-Akata, an agricultural region of southern Togo. They performed operations at the social center of Adeta, which is located nearly 150 miles away from the capital city of Lomé. Approximately three hundred people benefited from the free health consultations. On May 10th, 2021, the 23rd medical team to Togo officially ceased their activities in Togo. A send-off ceremony was held by Ambassador Chao Weidong, who thanked the medical team members for their work in Togo during the COVID-19 pandemic. The members of the 23rd medical team to Togo then returned to China. The Chinese Government has been dispatching medical teams to Togo every two years since 1974. Shanghai was originally responsible for sending the teams, but Shanxi Province took over in 1983.