Chosen as one of the designated Olympic hospitals by the BOCOG, the PLA General Hospital has assigned 208 doctors and nurses to offer medical support to the games in the special way of those medical workers starting from as early as July 2005 to now.

　　While the spectacular opening ceremony was going on on August 8, the VIP healthcare group from the PLA General Hospital was standing by its post in the medical room located at the No. 204 grandstand for offering medical help to any possible health problems happened to any of the more than 160 heads of states, leaders of governments, royal members and senior officials of the IOC watching the fabulous opening ceremony on the grandstand in the VIP zone so as to make sure that they will be OK all through the enjoyable occasion. Throughout the evening of the opening ceremony, they were in a room that is just a wall away from the rostrum, and yet they could not see the performance except an occasional glance at it on the screen of a 9-inch TV set once in a while.

　　The task of ensuring the health of the VIPs on the rostrum tops the list of priorities while the honorable guests from China and foreign countries on the grandstand too enjoy the top priority of medical support. The heavy responsibility was entrusted to the PLA General Hospital by the BOCOG in late June. As soon as the hospital accepted the job, 93 members were promptly picked up from its Olympic medical support teams of Wukesong, Laoshan and Fengtai stadiums to form a medical support team specially for the opening ceremony.

　　A retired former senior official said with emotion, "With you at side, no matter how hot and steamy the weather is, we can feel at ease to watch the opening ceremony."

　　Besides, the hospital has also been doing a superb job in other competition venues. During an inspection tour of medical support teams in charge of the Wukesong competition arenas on April 6, Mr. Shamash, director of the Medicine and Scientific Department of the IOC, spoke highly of the medical facilities, the work of medical stations and the procedure of first aids and rated the organization and management of the medical team as "five-star".

　　To satisfy the requirements of the BOCOG, Chen Xiaohong, deputy president of the hospital, led hundreds of medical workers to go through strict trainings from the year of 2005 on. When it eased into 2008, the hospital chose 208 professional elites from all the trained members to form the Olympic medical service team and trained them with professional subjects such as first aid skills and medical English, thus laying a firm foundation for offering the excellent Olympic medical service.

　　In addition, the Olympic medical service team also held quite a number of field-training exercises including emergency handling and first aid on the grandstand, in the courts (playing fields) and in stadiums and gymnasiums, transferring patients from the stadiums or gymnasiums to hospitals and the handing over between them, hospitalizing patients in large numbers, and separating diagnosis for outpatients and emergency cases. In addition to offering medical support to the Olympic Games, it, since 2006, has also successfully fulfilled the medical support missions in six Olympic testing competitions such as the "Good Luck Beijing" international baseball invitation tournament and international women's basketball invitation tournament. Thanks to their first-class skills, scientific medical treatment, standard operation and careful and meticulous services, they have won commendation not only from the BOCOG but also from the IOC.

　　By Zhang Yushan, Hou Weidong and Liu Quan

　　(Aug 19, PLA Daily)                                                    Editor: Dong Zhaohui