African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 371: Chapter 50 Arrangement

The East African monarchs used German throughout their communication, leaving the Far East aid group completely unable to understand their conversation. This made them very anxious, because their fate was now entirely in the hands of others.

Belrade: ”There are two main aspects to organizing the doctors. The first is gathering them. In our Ministry of Health’s practice, we found that traditional Chinese medicine is a system, and introducing a system requires building a framework. A framework cannot be completed by just one or two doctors, it requires collaboration among a group of authoritative and absolutely competent people to accomplish.

We originally have a group of doctors from the Far East in East Africa, but their professionalism is often inadequate. In the Far East, they have their own term called ’local physicians,’ meaning those who work as doctors in rural areas.

Many people come from generations of medical families, so they have ancestral skills and secret recipes for treating patients. Although they don’t hold a doctor’s license, they can still treat illnesses and save lives, and can even cure many difficult diseases. They are experienced and have seen quite a lot of patients.

However, due to the method of oral transmission, such theories inevitably cause deviations, and may even lead to serious knowledge interruptions due to family changes. This results in us finding that some doctors, when facing the same illness, have differences in prescriptions and treatment methods. These differences can be good or bad, extremely unstable.

Therefore, the kingdom should establish uniform standards for traditional Chinese medicine. On one hand, let doctors with true skills lead the standard setting, while also continuously improving and correcting the system by referring to real cases.”

Health Minister Belrade has been dealing with doctors from the Far East for many years, and traditional Chinese medicine has a complete theoretical system, with its unique aspects lying in the holistic concept of ”unity of heaven and humans” and ”correspondence between heaven and humans” as well as dialectical treatment.

This theory is very attractive to Belrade. Therefore, he believes traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes unity and coordination, while Western medicine is good at targeted treatment, mainly manifested in traditional Chinese medicine’s focus on conditioning, not overly relying on medications, and fully utilizing body functions, whereas Western medicine is overly dependent on medications and surgery in this aspect. If these two systems were placed together for Belrade to choose from, he would definitely choose to trust traditional Chinese medicine, as it has a higher margin of error.

Constantine: ”What you say makes sense, but our European medicine also has its admirable aspects.” Specifically, Constantine couldn’t quite say where those admirable aspects lay!

Belrade helped him resolve the confusion: ”Our European medicine excels in surgery, especially for treating trauma within the military, which has apparent effects. However, in this aspect, traditional Chinese medicine is also not bad. For example, in dealing with fractures, I have personally witnessed doctors from the Far East who are adept at a method of bone-setting characterized by stability, precision, skill, and swiftness, using skillful force and multiple continuous techniques to quickly and accurately reposition, reducing patient suffering, while avoiding the disadvantages of post-surgical scarring. Unfortunately, the kingdom currently only has one doctor with this expertise. I believe there are more doctors in the Far East with this skill, but don’t know if any are among this group.”

The Far East orthopedic doctor mentioned by Belrade is currently employed at the First Hospital in First Town. Since talents like this are discovered, they are certainly prioritized to supply the political center of the kingdom. The East African government specifically arranged a dozen apprentices for this doctor, hoping that this technology can be inherited and promoted in East Africa.

In Europe during this era, fractures were mainly dealt with using plaster bandages, but some fundamental problems could not be solved: clearly, the broken bone seemed to have been set right, but when the plaster was removed, the bone was either misaligned or differed in length from the original!

Therefore, East Africa took an advanced approach by combining the Far East’s bone-setting technology with Europe’s plaster bandages. This blend of Chinese and Western treatment techniques has become a unique therapy in East Africa, one of the current medical paradigms in East Africa.

Belrade continued, ”Similarly, in dealing with common cases such as malaria, the application of Chinese herbal medicine can also accelerate patient recovery, all verified by numerous real-world cases. So combining Far East and European medical techniques is undoubtedly beneficial for the kingdom’s medical enterprise development. Moreover, industrial development is also beneficial for our standardization efforts, mainly in setting unified standards for medical instruments and equipment, and in this regard, East Africa has a natural advantage.”

Belrade’s statement is not mere nonsense. Currently, in the surgical knife domain, the Heixinggen Daily Necessities Company, famous for producing Gillette razors, holds absolute authority over surgical knife production. Using replaceable blades in surgery is definitely a major innovation, but unfortunately, it is only widely promoted in East Africa. Many doctors in Europe still prefer reusable surgical knives, as these knives can be sharpened and reused, after all, Heixinggen Daily Necessities Company’s surgical knife blades cost more money, and surgical knives are not like razors where you fear cutting your face.

At this time, Constantine suddenly thought of another medical system prevalent in East Africa. The presence of European medicine in East Africa is quite natural, as East African Kingdom is also a ’German nation’. Traditional Chinese medicine was heavily promoted by his own son. However, in the coastal areas of East Africa, including First Town, there are still a large number of Arab doctors.

Arab medicine is also quite renowned, as the ancient Arab Empire spanned three continents, absorbing medical knowledge from the Far East, ancient Rome, India, Persia, Europe, Egypt, and other regions, producing the monumental ”Medical Canon”, which even laid the foundation for European medicine. Most Arab doctors in East Africa come from the Sultanate of Zanzibar, especially in the city of Dar es Salaam, where there are dozens of Arab medical clinics providing medical services to visiting tourists and merchants.

Thus, Constantine had a sudden thought and said, ”Belrade, should we organize an exchange involving court doctors (Western medicine), doctors from the Far East, and Arab doctors to promote the development of East Africa’s medical industry?”

Belrade: ”Certainly, Your Majesty. However, this matter needs to be considered later. I believe it would be best to first familiarize the Far East doctors with German, so there is the possibility of three-way communication.”

After all, Arab and German doctors in three-way medicine are easier to discuss, as there’s a great deal of similarity, while traditional Chinese medicine is completely unique. Many medical terminology and theories can overwhelm people, and without language communication, it’s basically like deaf people listening to an opera.

Constantine thought it made sense, everyone should first mingle in East Africa for a while, and consider this matter later. So he said, ”Alright! Let’s put this matter on hold. You go on.”

Belrade continued, ”As I mentioned earlier, there are two aspects: the first is gathering, and the second is dispersing. To spread medicine, talent cultivation is necessary. There are two methods to cultivate medical talents: one is apprenticeship, the other academy. Based on the current situation of the East African Kingdom, I believe we can expand the promotion of the apprenticeship system. East African medical resources are scarce, especially doctors, who are in short supply. This can allow these doctors to disperse to various parts of East Africa for consultation while arranging students to follow and learn. It would be best if bilingual East African children were involved in this learning process. As for the medical academy, it’s also worth considering, although it can only be established in one location. This limits patient numbers, emphasizes theoretical learning, and lacks clinical experience, but it is suitable for mass-producing doctors.”

Constantine: ”What you say is correct. Currently, the apprenticeship system remains mainstream in Europe, but the academy’s momentum as an emerging trend is also evident. In this matter, we can walk on two legs in East Africa, progressing both avenues simultaneously.”

In this dialogue between the monarch and minister, the fate of the Far East doctors was determined, divided into two groups: one group guiding the establishment of standards for traditional Chinese medicine and forming medical academies, and another setting up clinics across East Africa, using the apprentice system to drive the development of local medical industries.