A 13-member medical team left Taipei for northeast China's Heilongjiang province Tuesday, the latest team sent by Taiwan-based Loving Blind Association to help cataract sufferers on the mainland.

During their seven-day stay in Heilongjiang, the team planned to conduct 350 intraocular lens implant operations free of charge for impoverished patients, said C.K. Yen, the association's chairman, before their departure.

They had brought donated materials worth 1 million yuan ($147,000), including medicines and intraocular lenses, he said.

"In the operations, we will use flexible intraocular lenses imported from the United States," he said. "Compared with the commonly used inflexible intraocular lenses on the mainland, the flexible ones will cause lighter injury to patients. Each operation will take about 20 minutes."

In addition, the Taiwan doctors will hold a seminar with local counterparts on the treatment of eye diseases, including cataract operations and cornea transplants, he said.

"On the mainland, large hospitals in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have provided high-level treatment to cataract patients, but in smaller hospitals and remote regions people still lack access to the latest therapies," said Lin-Chung Woung, deputy superintendent of Taipei City Hospital and a member of the team.

"Through our visits, I expect not only to treat some patients, but also provide training for local doctors so that more people will benefit," Woung said.

The association has been sending such medical teams to the mainland since 2003.

The association had also discussed surgery clinics with local authorities in Lishui, of eastern Zhejiang Province, Shenyang, of northwestern Liaoning Province, and Shijiazhuang, of northern Hebei Province, Yen said.

The medical team was jointly sponsored by China Southern Airlines, which set up a Taiwan branch in August last year.

Editor: Xie Fang

Source: Xinhua