BEIJING -- A total of 659 medical staff from seven provinces and municipalities have provided assistance to eight hospitals in Tibet since 2015, according to a report released at a regular press conference of the National Health Commission Thursday.

The medical assistance to Tibet was co-launched by the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the former National Health and Family Planning Commission in July 2015 in a bid to build up medical capacities in Tibet.

Medical staff from 65 hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Anhui, Guangdong, Chongqing, Liaoning and Shaanxi have helped train 1,446 local medical personnel in Tibet, according to the report.

The number of outpatients and inpatients received by the assisted eight hospitals in Tibet rose by 37.55 percent and 76.23 percent from 2014 to 2018, respectively. Procedures performed by the eight hospitals increased by 76.02 percent in number.

Medical workers in the eight hospitals have saved the lives of 90.88 percent of patients with serious illnesses or in critical condition in 2018, up 21.55 percent from 2014, the report read.