Beijing Ditan Hospital, formerly named the First Infectious Diseases Hospital of Beijing, was founded in l946. It is a 3A city hospital (top-level hospital in our grading system) under the joint supervision of the Ministry of Health, Beijing Health Bureau and the Center of Disease Prevention and Control. Its many functions are as follows: one of the 10 hospitals in Beijing designated for foreign service, teaching hospital of the Medical College of Beijing University, institution for postgraduate education, National Base for Clinical Trials of Pharmaceutical Products, Clinical Training Base for AIDS Prevention and Treatment of the Ministry of Health, China -European Union Training Base for Prevention and Control of AIDS and Venereal Diseases, Beijing Consulting Center of Difficult and Complex Diseases, Clinical Base for Treating Infectious Diseases with Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine (work supported by State Administration of TCM and International SOS and AEA Company), Clinical Base for AIDS Treatment with Chinese Medicine, Beijing Research Center for Prevention and Treatment of Viral Infectious Diseases, and Beijing AIDS Clinical Research Center.

The hospital is connected professionally with many medical centers across the country, and have established friendly cooperative relations with famous international hospitals including Centre Hospitalier Le Mans in France, Chelsea Hospital and Westminster Hospital in England.

The hospital is highly reputed for the successful integration of medical service, scientific research, teaching, and prevention of infectious diseases into an organic whole. Its medical workers undertake the diagnosis and treatment of 36 legally-designated communicable diseases except tuberculosis, and their competency was demonstrated in the struggle against SARS in 2003 and 2004.

The hospital holds 500 beds and its buildings cover a construction area of 34,000 square meters, which provides 29,000 square meters of floor space. There are 700 registered staff members, including 85 workers with advanced qualifications, 65 with doctoral or master degrees, 87.3％ of them being specialists and more than l0, advisers of postgraduate students. Thus, they form a strong army of workers capable of delivering all-round medical service. After the successful fight against SARS in 2003 and 2004, the following goals and tasks were set for the hospital: a full range of departments with distinctive features, well-echeloned staff structure, advanced research, well-connected network, effective management, convenient professional service, efficient use of capital, and preparation for the coming relocation of the hospital. As a step toward having full-service capability, new specialties were added lately, namely, clinics of ophthalmology, otorhinolaryngology, and stomatology, pediatrics department, treatment center for complications of liver diseases and social service department, while old services were also upgraded, namely, medical and surgical departments of liver and gallbladder diseases, departments of traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, infectious diseases, general internal medicine, gynaecology and obstetrics, and intensive care. The departments of liver diseases, AIDS, and traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine are considered as key medical units of Beijing. The surgery department has grown rapidly since the first case of liver transplantation was successfully done in June, 2004; and on record is the good recovery even of patients with severe liver diseases prior to transplantation. The Beijing Liver Transplantation and Rehabilitation Center was founded at our hospital in 2005; its task is to render high-quality medical support for recipients of liver transplants. The hospital assists the Beijing Union of Liver Transplant Recipients, which is the first registered association of its kind in China organized to help post-transplantation patients.

The Home of Red Ribbon of Beijing Ditan Hospital, a well-known society at home and abroad, mobilizes social forces to provide psychological care and services for AIDS patients and HIV carriers, protects their rights, spreads HIV/AIDS knowledge, and offers hotline and consulting services.

Since it is the strategy of the hospital to develop on the strength of science and technology, the Institute of Infectious Diseases was established not long ago. Its expert researchers, working in well-equipped laboratories, have accomplished a number of national key projects concerning viral hepatitis and AIDS, and projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation, Beijing Natural Science Foundation, and Beijing Science and Technology Commission.

The hospital strives to offer a high-level medical service that meets national demands, promote a public health system that embraces disease prevention and control, and foster a socialist culture and spirit that pervades all its work. It has received many honors, namely, Award for Model Health Unit, May First Labor Award, Women’s Day Award to Advanced Collective, and Award to Advanced unit with Socialist Culture and Spirit. Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice-premier Wu Yi inspected the hospital in 2003. Liu Qi, Wang Qishan and other leaders of Beijing Municipality have visited the hospital many times. Premier Wen Jiabao’s inscription of live and let live is a motto inspiring the staff to make greater contributions.

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