The opening ceremony of the Affiliated Public Health Hospital of Southwest University (SWU) kicked off in the multi-functional hall of the Bo'ai Building of the Chongqing Public Health Center on June 27.

The hospital is targeted at strengthening the innovation ability of medical teaching and research, developing innovative basic and clinical research, and training top-notch and innovative medical talents.

Zhou Lin, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission, and Cui Yanqiang, vice president of the SWU, attended the ceremony. 

Zhou conveyed warm congratulations and put forward three hopes. Firstly, that the newly-launched hospital will give full play to its clinical advantages in personnel training and discipline construction and improve its teaching and scientific research abilities; secondly that the SWU will intensify its intellectual and policy support and capital investment to build the hospital into a first-class infectious disease center in China and a leader in western China; and thirdly that the SWU and the hospital will jointly optimize high-quality medical and health services for the people and promote the healthy and rapid growth of public health in the city as a whole. 

Cui said that the two sides will promote common growth based closely on the principle of "synergy, sharing and win-win cooperation".

The ceremony symbolized that the center has officially grown to be a non-directly affiliated hospital of a “Double First-Class” university in China, effectively boosting the upgrading of public health to a new level and injecting new impetus into the development of public health centers. 

The hospital-university cooperation sets a good example for promoting the construction of western medical centers in Chongqing and laying a solid foundation for better public health in the city.