This year, Zhuhai's health system has reached many milestones from successfully carrying out its first "artificial heart" implementation operation to having four 3A-grade hospitals ranking among the top 10 percent in the country according to a performance assessment released in July.

The city has been devoted to building a high-quality regional medical center adhering to the demands of the city cluster on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012.

The city has been sparing no effort to promote the balanced layout of high-quality medical resources and construction of high-level hospitals, striving to become a pioneer in the high-quality development of the health industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). 

Due to its geographical structure, in which the distance between its east and west wings is over 60 km (37 miles), Zhuhai's medical resources have been distributed in an unbalanced manner. All four of its 3A-grade hospitals are located in downtown Zhuhai in the eastern part of the city, indicating that people living in the west and north Zhuhai areas of Doumen, Jinwan, and Tangjiawan have difficulties in accessing convenient medical services. 

The city released the three-year implement plan (2021-23) of health projects invested in by the municipal government in 2020, outlining the numbers and scales of medical institutes at different levels in east and west Zhuhai.

Infrastructure construction of the two high-level hospitals of Zhuhai People's Hospital and the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University are being moved forward, as is construction of citywide basic-level medical service institutions.

The municipal government invested 9.5 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in 16 projects last year, among which half of them have been put into operation as scheduled. Twelve hospital construction projects will be underway during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), adding 3,000 patient beds citywide. Doumen Women's & Children's Hospital, the only one of its kind specializing in women's and children's health in west Zhuhai, will start operation in 2023 to provide Doumen and Jiwan residents with relevant medical treatment without having to cross the Zhuhai Bridge. 

Rendering of the municipal biosafety P3 laboratory [Photo by Cheng Lin / Zhuhai Daily]

As one of the Top 10 Livelihood Projects for 2021, a municipal biosafety P3 laboratory and disease prevention capability improvement project in Nanping started construction on Sept 24, 2021. Main structure of the laboratory has now finished and the facility will be fully completed by the end of the year.

Upon operation, it will be a high-level biology laboratory located on the west bank of the GBA and major platform monitoring infectious diseases on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary.

Zhuhai's first "artificial heart" implant surgery was performed at the Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University on May 4. An official of the Zhuhai Health Bureau said that the success was one of the outcomes that Zhuhai has achieved in its construction of high-level hospitals in recent years.

In addition, more support has gone to Zhuhai's advantageous disciplines, such as interventions, infections, and severe diseases, in the past three years, while six domestic and overseas talents have been hired as Zhuhai's high-end medical think tank experts, including Gu Dongfeng, Ni Jiazuan, and Peter E Lobie. The city is now home to 22 high-caliber medical teams and has cultivated nearly 120 personnel with national, provincial, and municipal professional titles.

The key laboratory of interventional diagnosis and treatment of cancer of Zhuhai People's Hospital was rated as a Guangdong Key Laboratory, being the first of its kind in the city to receive this title.