Neighbors give Lao hospitals healthy dose of support
Cross-border care, training and medical exchanges boost patients' treatment options
Building capacity
Souliphone Nanthilath crossed the border not as a patient, but as a doctor wanting to learn more.
A clinician at Luang Namtha City Hospital in Laos, Nanthilath arrived in China on June 8 for training in general surgery at Mengla County People's Hospital. Her training has included clinical practice, ward rounds and case discussions.
"My biggest gain has not only been medical knowledge and clinical skills," she said. "More importantly, I have learned more standardized approaches to medical care and clinical thinking, as well as the importance of teamwork and putting patients at the center of care."
Her training is part of the medical exchanges between Yunnan and Laos that stretch back more than six decades. From 1964 to 1975, Yunnan sent six medical teams comprising of 83 members to Laos. Over the years, cooperation has expanded from medical assistance to disease control, hospital partnerships and training of health workers.
More recently, Xishuangbanna People's Hospital worked with hospitals in five northern Lao provinces under a China-ASEAN healthcare cooperation program from 2014 to 2024.
During that period, the two sides had 42 personnel exchanges involving 497 participants. Four provincial hospitals in Laos were supported in establishing emergency medical rescue teams.
For Nanthilath, what matters most is what happens after she returns to Laos.
Primary healthcare still faces gaps in trained personnel, medical equipment, medicine supplies and opportunities for continuing education. After returning home, she plans to apply what she has learned in her own practice and share it with colleagues. "Good medical concepts and standardized procedures can continue to improve the quality of care, even when conditions are limited," she said.
Li Yuanyuan, deputy director of the Xishuangbanna Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said building local capacity is crucial to making cooperation sustainable.
"We need to combine 'blood transfusion' with 'blood production'," Li said, using a Chinese metaphor for pairing immediate support with efforts to build local capacity.
She said that means placing greater emphasis on training health workers and helping Laos develop its own disease-control teams and grassroots healthcare networks, rather than relying primarily on material assistance.
