UK-China paediatric experts unite to fight against COVID-19

On the 3rd April, a live COVID-19 learning-sharing video conference successfully took place between expert paediatric medical teams from three children’s hospitals in the UK and China: Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH), Beijing Children’s Hospital and Wuhan Children’s Hospital.

The conference included the Chinese hospitals sharing valuable experience and in-depth discussion on in-hospital infection control as well as screening, diagnosing, preventing and treating children with COVID-19. The conference attracted hospital-wide attention at GOSH with overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Nearly 350 participants joined the conference, including paediatric peers based in other countries e.g. Australia. It successfully deepened international cooperation and exchanges with Chinese hospital partners and promoted collaboration between the UK and China to fight against the global epidemic.

Dr Melanie Hiorns, Clinical Director of the International Service at GOSH moderated over the conference. Dr Xin Ni, President of Beijing Children’s Hospital, Dr Jianbo Shao, President of Wuhan Children’s Hospital and the Directors from Infectious Diseases, In-hospital Infection Control, PICU, Pulmonology, Haematology departments in Beijing and Wuhan gave the presentations during the conference.

Talking about the significance of this conference, Dr Jianbo Shao, President of Wuhan Children’s Hospital, said: “the virus does not respect borders and we must collaborate together to win this battle. As the only designated hospital in Wuhan dedicated to treating paediatric patients with COVID-19, we have gained first-hand experience at the forefront of this fight. Therefore, we have the responsibility to share our learnings with our international hospital peers and help them”.

Professor Yongli Guo, Director of Futang Research Centre of Paediatric Development at Beijing Children's Hospital, added: “children’s health and happiness play a significant role in every family in every country. GOSH is our important strategic partner hospital in the UK. We are keen to work together with GOSH to protect more children during this special coronavirus outbreak period and overcome these difficulties together”.

Commenting on the conference, Dr Melanie Hiorns said: “It has been incredibly valuable to share first -hand experiences of dealing with COVID-19 with Wuhan and Beijing Children’s Hospitals and to understand the challenges they faced. We are hugely grateful to them for their collaboration and professional collegiality and hope that this is just the beginning of an ongoing and meaningful exchange of knowledge.”

Many thanks to the Beijing Children’s Hospital, Wuhan Children’s Hospital, Futang Research Centre of Paediatric Development and everyone who helped to facilitate this conference.