Representatives from the CQHCWC and the Zunyi Health Center for Women and Children sign the cooperation agreement. [Photo/CQHCWC]

A signing and unveiling ceremony for the Zunyi Reproductive Medicine Center of the Chongqing Health Center for Women and Children – the Women and Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, or CQHCWC – was held on Dec 14 and an ambitious vision for its future was outlined.

The event took place at the Zunyi Health Center for Women and Children, in the city of Zunyi in Southwest China's Guizhou province.

Attendees included Li Pan, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission; Ming Yan, vice mayor of Zunyi city and Wang Jian, secretary of the Party committee of the CQHCWC. Other dignitaries present included Qi Hongbo, president of the CQHCWC; Huang Guoning, director of the center's Reproductive Medicine Center and officials from the Zunyi Health Center for Women and Children.

During the ceremony, Li emphasized that the two medical centers should take their cooperation as an opportunity to further implement the Healthy China plan and ensure the health of key populations.

Moreover, they should promote the balanced distribution of high-quality medical resources and increase exchanges – in areas such as technologies, disciplines, professionals, management and scientific research – so as to improve the quality of the health of the population and promote the health of women and children, in particular.

Attendees pose for a photo at the unveiling ceremony of the CQHCWC (Zunyi) Reproductive Medicine Center. [Photo/CQHCWC]

Ming pointed that Zunyi had attached great importance to the development of the health care sector. The unveiling of the new reproductive medicine center meant a lot to the city's health care development, enabling it to play a positive role in Zunyi's efforts to become a vibrant regional medical center.

Qi Hongbo and Wen Yuanqiang – who is secretary of the Party committee of the Zunyi Health Center for Women and Children – signed the partnership agreement. Li and Ming unveiled the new center.

As the birthplace of the first test-tube baby in West China, the Reproductive Medicine Center of the CQHCWC is the first reproductive center in the country approved by the former Ministry of Health – now the National Health Commission – to carry out human-assisted reproductive technology. 

The center's annual number of test-tube baby transplantation cycles is about 17,000, the clinical pregnancy rate of assisted reproduction and assisted pregnancy is stable at about 60 percent and its live birth rate remains at about 50 percent.

The center's expertise in its field is widely regarded as being at the forefront of the country and takes the lead in Southwest China, with its services radiating out to Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other surrounding provinces.

The establishment of the Zunyi Reproductive Medicine Center is part of a wider effort at deepening a cross-regional medical consortium and hierarchical medical cooperation model focusing on assisted reproductive technology, as well as its exploration of the establishment of a regional medical center for reproductive medicine.

Moving forwards, plans are for the CQHCWC and the Zunyi Health Center for Women and Children to deepen their cooperation. That's in order to promote the expansion of high-quality medical resources, so as to benefit more women and children in Chongqing municipality and Guizhou province.