Residents of the Tibet autonomous region can now enjoy comprehensive medical services at local hospitals accredited as top-class healthcare institutions in China.

Such institutions, which have more than 500 beds and competitive medical technology, equipment and management, include the Tibet Autonomous Region People's Hospital and city-level people's hospitals in Lhasa, Shigatse and Nyingchi.

The upgrading of healthcare in the region has been achieved thanks to years of hard work by doctors and officials from both near and far, including Shanghai, which began sending experts to the plateau in 2015.

The program delivers groups of medical teams every year from seven cities and provinces, including Beijing and Shanghai, as well as Anhui and Liaoning provinces, to help train local doctors.

The latest official statistics show a total of 519 medical staff have been dispatched to the region. Among them, 62 experts from 23 top-class hospitals in Shanghai have been assigned to Shigatse People's Hospital in three groups by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning. Most participants have yearlong stints, but four are on three-year contracts.

"The level of medical care in Tibet was obviously lower than the average at Shanghai's hospitals, mainly because of the lack of timely updating of medical science and technology," said Long Ziwen, a doctor at Fudan University's Shanghai Cancer Center.