Followup on Guangzhou Medical Team in Ghana

My exclusive report a while ago on a medical team from Guangzhou, China was struggling to get its established in Accra, Ghana has caught much attention. One local Ghanaian has left comment expressing his concern towards the fate of these medical doctors sent by the Chinese government to help out but found themselves "not needed" and "not supported" in a foreign land thousand miles away from home.

How are they doing now? I checked in with neurologist Dr. Song's blog to find some updates.

There are signs of improving. Dr. Song has since got assigned to a particular post with Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, where he is now working along with a Ghanaian medical doctor and attended regular meetings. An avid sports fun, Dr. Song is obviously caught the favor of the World Cup, he was joyful with the Ghana Team's performance and wrote about the day when the Black Stars failed to advance further.

However, there are also signs of frustration, or even agony. The place Dr. Song and his 8 teammates stay are now in the center of a dispute between its landlord and the Ministry of Health, where the team collaborated with. The landlord has restricted the Chinese doctors making necessary repairs, even to water pump which provides water to the team.

The team also found themselves helpless facing bureaucracy and inefficiency, they tried paying money to speed up a procedure in order to purchase a car, but months pass by, the process is still ongoing and no time of getting it in sight.

"I found myself speechless, the upset feeling is almost beyond control!!" Dr. Song wrote, " I hope one day the Ghana Immigration Service will catch us for illegal staying and deport us. It will be a greatest joke!!!"