An online conference between the Xianning Central Hospital and York Teaching Hospital to combat Covid-19 by UK-Medu

The globe has continued its fight with the COVID-19 pandemic. The new coronavirus has affected many, including the UK which has accumulated over 100,000 confirmed cases and over 13,000 deaths as of 16th April. Since the previous online conference on 8th April, UK-Medu continued its effort to contribute towards the fight against COVID-19 by hosting a second online conference on 17th April 12:00 to 14:00 (Beijing time 19:00-21:00) between Xianning Central Hospital and York Teaching Hospital. This conference involved over 60 experts in fields such as infectious disease, anaesthetic, intensive care, radiology and pharmacy.

The infectious disease and intensive care medical experts from the Xianning Central Hospital kick start the meeting by sharing their experience with COVID-19 patients, including oxygen therapy, nutrition therapy, airway management, continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) and Extracorporeal Membrane Pulmonary Oxygenation Therapy (ECMO). In addition, the Xianning Central Hospital incorporates Chinese medicine and psychological treatment in their treatment plan. The Chinese medicine expert invited by the Xianning Central Hospital shared the use of “Feiduqing”, a type of Chinese medicine that had helped the COVID-19 patients and had a very promising effect. It is followed by the radiology experts sharing their findings, where they describe the possible use of CT scan when the RT-PCR test is scarce or unavailable. Similar to the Wuhan Central Hospital, the radiology department uses multiple regions including buffer zones, contaminated, semi contaminated and clean areas to avoid the risk of cross infection.

Conference between Xianning Central Hospital and York Teanching Hospital

Towards the end of the conference, the medical experts from Xianning Central Hospital gave detailed explanations on questions regarding potential clinical issues, such as lack of medical supplies and the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for treatment. The medical experts from York mentioned that they have benefited greatly from the online sharing. The chairman of UK-Medu, Mr Kevin Liu expressed his gratitude for the medical experts for their sacrifices and bravery during this global pandemic and invited the experts from Xianning Central Hospital to visit the UK in the coming future.