CRI听力:An Eye Hospital on Wheels Opens in Beijing for Visit

A Lifeline Express train, which consists of four compartments that house eye-care medical equipment, has recently opened its doors to ordinary citizens near Beijing West Railway Station.

Chief of the third of four Lifeline Express trains is surnamed Zhang, a retiree from China's Ministry of Health.

"Our focus of today's activity is not medical services, but offering ordinary citizens a chance to get closer to this Lifeline Express train and give their support to this project that aims to enable those with impaired vision in China's poverty-stricken areas to regain their eyesight. The activity aims to arouse public care and concern about these disadvantaged people."

According to the activity's organizer, the Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express, the project had cured more than 170,000 impoverished cataract patients free of charge nationwide in China by the end of 2015.

In fact, many of these cataract patients reside in remote regions grappling with traffic. The train's chief described what he's discovered within the three years he has served on board.

"Those who live in impoverished areas, particularly mountainous regions, may not see a train in their whole life. Now they can not only visit a train but receive medical treatment for a few days on wheels, which is a new and joyful experience for them."

This public show of China's only mobile cataract hospital in Beijing is also a joyful learning experience for many local visitors.

17-year old Cui Jingwei, a student with The Capital Railway Health School, is among the visitors.

"Many local people, particularly senior citizens are unwilling to leave their hometown in mountainous areas. They may also think both the medical expenses and long distance are beyond their reach and thus decided to give up their hope. But the Lifeline Express trains would arrive at their hometown and send doctors there to give them new hope via free medical treatment."

The first Lifeline Express was donated by the Hong Kong government in July of 1997 to mark its return to the Chinese mainland.

To start is always the hardest step.

Seeing the progress made so far is exciting for Dong Shuzhen, an old chief of the first-ever Lifeline Express train.

This also led her to recall how they embarked on the journey.

"In 1997 and 1998, locals were unaware that our medical treatment only targets cataract patients. Local hospitals would conduct a primary screening of patients with eye diseases. We'd carry out a further screening: for instance, if we offered 1,000 cataract patients surgeries, the patients had been screened from 4000 or even 5,000 patients who had various types of eye diseases, not just cataracts. Fuyang city in Anhui province was our first stop, where a total of 19 medical workers performed more than 100 surgeries on the train. Today, there are only seven people on each train, including the head of the team, medical workers, chefs and maintenance and repair workers, and around 1500 surgeries are given at each place where the train stops."

Almost twenty years have passed, and now there are four Lifeline Express trains, which have traveled across 28 provinces and autonomous regions in China.

Doctors and nurses used to be selected from China's top-level hospitals. Now the coverage expands to the city's top-level hospitals.

The Beijing Tongren Hospital, a famous institution which specializes in surgeries related to eyes, has joined this Lifeline Express project twice. But this is the first time that Zhou Dan, a Tongren Hospital doctor, has embarked on the tour.

She decided to join the charity project after some senior doctors from her hospital shared their previous experiences with her about offering medical assistance in Tibet.

"As soon as they unfold the gauze, they may discover they can see again, and then they may present the Tibetan scarf Khata to the doctor. And both doctors and patients were brought to tears, and that scene is a true expression of emotion from both sides."

Now a doctor has to perform a new task, in addition to the traditional practice of medical operations. That's also a further step towards which a Lifeline Express progresses.

Liu Menglin, deputy secretary-general of the foundation, explains:

"An estimated 150 million people have diabetes in China, and the country shows an increase in incidences of diabetes. Usually after a decade, diabetic retinopathy occurs on many of these diabetes patients. Furthermore, a peak in the incidences of diabetes is predicted to occur soon. In addition to curing diabetes patients and training eye doctors, the Lifeline Express project also concentrates on screening diabetic retinopathy patients and educating the public about the severity of this disease."

Today, the Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express wants to do more to help more people in need, since diabetes can also cause blindness.

According to the Chinese Foundation for Lifeline Express, every year approximately one million diabetes patients lose their eyesight owing to lack of proper medical treatment, and the WHO has estimated that around 10 percent of all Chinese adults suffer from some form of diabetes.

For Studio Plus, I'm Shen Ting.