(Seychelles News Agency) - Seychelles received a donation of medical equipment on Wednesday from a Chinese medical team that is currently in the island nation, which will cater to the needs of the Seychelles Hospital.

Dr Zhuo Xiaoqing from the China Medical Team, said, "This donation reflects the friendship between China and Seychelles, and showcases our joint commitment to continue to improve the health of the people of Seychelles."

The equipment varies from those used to monitor the vitals of patients to those that are used in the operations theatre, as well as equipment used in acupuncture, among others.

The acting chief executive of the Health Care Agency, Dr Jadhav Chandrashekhar, accepted the donation from the China Medical Team during the ceremony and expressed his gratitude for the continued support.

'We welcome this donation of equipment, as well as the future plans that we have to continue to the development the local health sector," said Chandrashekhar.

The acting director of Community Health Service, Josapha Jouanneau, explained that this equipment will serve to add to what they already have.

"Here we have equipment that we can use to monitor patients when they are admitted, a pulse oxymeter, which allows us to measure the oxygen levels in patients, and also instruments that can be used in orthopaedic surgeries," she added.  

As a South-South cooperation project, China began to send a medical team to Seychelles in 1985 and over the past 38 years, 18 groups of 108 Chinese doctors from Shandong Province have been serving Seychellois patients with their medical expertise.

The current team, which arrived in May 2023, is the 19th cohort sent to Seychelles. It has six doctors,  Dr Zhuo Xiaoqing, a cardiologist, Dr Song Fei, general surgeon, Dr Sun Shining, a radiologist, Dr Wang Tianda, an acupuncturist, Dr Ahu Yanyan, a radiologist, and Dr Zhang Jiuchao, an orthopaedist.