On Jan 14, the completion ceremony of Luzhou Gospel Hospital Luxian Branch -- Luzhou Gospel Kidney Disease Specialized Hospital was hosted in Fuji Village, Luxian County. It was co-founded by Luzhou Christian Church and Luzhou Heng'ai Hospital Management Company. It also celebrated the 6th anniversary of the establishment of Luzhou Jiangyang Gospel Hospital.
The Kidney Disease Specialized Hospital is a branch of Luzhou Gospel Hospital. It specializes in Nephrology, Chronic Diseases, Orthopedics, and Minimally Invasive Surgery, and is equipped with computed tomography, magnetic resonance, Color Doppler Ultrasound, Laboratory equipment, and a Blood purification device. It can carry out genetic testing, especially with the support of China National Gene Bank, and a Gene Medicine Company in Shenzhen.
Luzhou Gospel Hospital grew out of a temporary pharmacy started by a Canadian missionary from an association called Bible Christians in Luzhou in 1911. Later the missionary converted the pharmacy into a clinic. Two years later, in 1913, with the joint efforts of local believers, the clinic was built as the first western hospital in Luzhou by missionaries in China. It was called Luzhou Gospel Hospital.
The hospital got high renown in China during the Republic Defense War. With the advantage of the western medicine in Orthopedic Traumatology, the hospital provided a great convenience for soldiers and ordinary people in the chaos of war. At that time, the Gospel Hospital became the most beautiful Gospel for the local patients.
According to the memoir of I. E. Revelle, Canadian, president of the Luzhou Gospel Hospital at the time, "All the patients, from little beggar boys to local officials, showed friendship and respect toward Gospel Hospital."
During the war of Resistance, Luzhou Gospel Hospital was bombed by the Japanese army. It changed the name to Luzhou Christian Renji Hospital after being rebuilt in 1945. In 1951, the hospital was taken over by the government and merged into the local public hospital. In 2000, with the efforts of local Christian churches, the church medical project was restarted. In 2008, during the earthquake disaster relief process of Wenchuan, the attention of Hong Kong Medical Care Co., Ltd helped to bring about the "resurrection" of Gospel Hospital. At the time, Hong Kong Medical Care united Luzhou Christian Church, with the donations of Nanjing Aide Foundation, ELCA, Fellowship of Fujian Huadian Church, and believers of Luzhou Christian Church; the Gospel Hospital was able to be rebuilt for the third time. It was renamed Luzhou Christian Church Gospel Hospital in 2011 and it is the first church hospital to be rebuilt in mainland China.
Also according to a report of Chuannan.net, after six years of development, the hospital explored a new pattern for church hospitals that is different from both public and private hospitals. In 2014, Luzhou Jiangyang Gospel Hospital signed to be a medical unit with Luzhou Medical School Affiliated Hospital (current Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, AHSMU) and was listed as the aiding the poor area of AHSMU. It provided medical services for over 3,000 financially challenged patients through cost reduction and clinical medical treatment of high quality.
Over the six years, the medical aid fund of the hospital has added more than 5 million. At the end of 2014, Luzhou Medical College (current Southwest Medical University) and the Gospel Hospital co-won the first "China Healthcare Innovation CHIP award." In 2015, the hospital won "National Religious Community Charity Exchange Conference Outstanding Collective Award." In 2016, Jiang Fuyi, Secretary of the CPC Luzhou Municipal Committee, Liu Qiang, mayor of Luzhou, accompanied Cui Baohua, Standing Committee of the CPC Sichuan provincial Committee, inspected the medical condition in aiding the poor of Luzhou Gospel Hospital and advised the hospital to expand to grassroots areas like districts and counties.
Translated by: Grace Hubl
