A doctor from Taiwan visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham to find out more about its successful Sport and Exercise Medicine Service.

Dr Lee Wai Keung, from Taiwan’s Tao Yuan General Hospital, met consultants who care for both elite athletes and the general population at the QEHB.

Taipei City administration is hoping to set up dedicated sports and exercise medicine service in its public hospital and Dr Lee wanted to see how best practice in Birmingham could help shape plans in his home city.

He now plans to take his findings back to his hospital Dean and Government contacts.

Dr Lee said: “The service here in Birmingham is excellent. The equipment, environment and system gives patients the best treatments and it’s certainly something we would like to create in Taiwan.

“Our health system is very different but what I’ve seen here is a reference to our future. Maybe we can follow and create a better service for our patients.”

Discussions centred on the fact that Taiwan has predominantly orthopaedic and rehabilitation medicine doctors and a physiotherapy service but no dedicated sports and exercise medicine service.

Dr Lee was impressed by the NHS principle of ‘free at the point of delivery’ care and by the adoption of multi-disciplinary working across specialties.

Dr Kim Gregory, QEHB Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine, said: “We discussed the structure of our service at QEHB and generally that in the UK compared to Taiwan.

“We talked about methods of promoting exercise within healthcare, referral pathways and the issues of publicly funded versus private medicine in both countries.

“It was an extremely useful visit and allowed everyone to share experience, ideas and knowledge.”

The QE’s Sport and Exercise Medicine Service is delivered by musculoskeletal physiotherapists and a consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine. The team cares for recreational athletes, weekend warriors, enthusiastic exercisers and dancers, as well as elite athletes who choose to use the NHS.