China's Top Departments: Neonatology at Guangdong Clifford Hospital (Guangzhou)

If you are expecting a baby and preparing for the possibility of a high-risk pregnancy, preterm birth, neonatal jaundice or a stay in the NICU — and you want a world-class newborn care team within easy reach of Guangzhou and Hong Kong — the Department of Neonatology at Guangdong Clifford Hospital is one of the strongest destinations in the Greater Bay Area.

The department combines Western critical-care medicine with Traditional Chinese Medicine inside China's first JCI-accredited large general Grade 3A hospital, and it is led by Professor Zhang Youxiang, Chairman of the Neonatology Branch of the Guangzhou Medical Association. At Medora, we help Hong Kong, Macao and international families plan deliveries and newborn care at Clifford. Here's what you need to know.

Overview

The Department of Neonatology is a specialized unit dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of newborn diseases and the critical care of high-risk newborns. The department has 31 medical and nursing staff, including 9 physicians — among them one chief physician and one associate chief physician — and 40% of the team hold a master's degree, forming a complete physician–nursing–technician team.

The department operates 35 beds, including 10 beds in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and its ward classification meets Level 5 of the Guangzhou neonatal ward classification. Equipment includes multi-functional non-invasive ventilators, dedicated neonatal conventional- and high-frequency oscillatory ventilators, high-grade multi-function cardiac monitors, high-grade infant incubators, phototherapy (blue-light) devices and T-piece resuscitators — first-class domestic and imported equipment supporting continuous monitoring and treatment from extremely preterm infants to critically ill newborns.

The department is also known for humanized, "family-participatory" care: it operates three telephone hotlines every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:00 to 11:30 (84518222 ext. 80861 / 80862 / 80810), through which families can speak directly with the attending physician about their baby's condition. For cross-border families, the hospital's International Medical Department supports a continuous care pathway — from immediate resuscitation at birth, through NICU monitoring, to post-discharge follow-up — in close multidisciplinary (MDT) collaboration with obstetrics, child health, surgery and anesthesiology.

Academic Standing

• Core specialty of the Pediatric Center: neonatology is listed among the hospital's pediatric service scopes, alongside respiratory, spleen-and-stomach and kidney disease specialties, and works closely with the Pediatric Center in both clinical care and faculty
• Pediatric pedigree: the hospital's Pediatrics Department was established in 2001; named a Guangdong Provincial Famous TCM Department in 2009, designated in 2012 as a National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NATCM) Key Specialty construction project, and honored in 2018 with the "Best Clinical Specialty of Chinese TCM Hospitals" award
• Scale: Pediatrics maintains more than 100 inpatient beds, over 5,000 inpatient admissions and 200,000 outpatient visits per year, integrating clinical care, teaching, research and health promotion
• Academic leadership: Prof. Zhang Youxiang, Director of the Pediatric Center, serves as Chairman of the Neonatology Branch of the Guangzhou Medical Association. In July 2025, the conference "New Advances in Newborn Healthcare and Pediatric Diagnosis and Treatment" — hosted by the Guangzhou Medical Association and co-organized by Guangdong Clifford Hospital — was held at the hospital, with Prof. Zhang as Conference Chairman
• Birth-defects alliance: on 18 September 2025, the hospital and the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center formally established a Birth Defects Prevention and Control Specialty Alliance, promoting a full-chain "education–screening–diagnosis–intervention" service
• Institutional background: Guangdong Clifford Hospital is China's first large general Grade 3A hospital to receive international JCI accreditation, a National GCP drug trial base, a designated institution under the Greater Bay Area "GBA Connect" scheme, a pilot institution for Hong Kong's Elderly Health Care Vouchers, and a Class V (top-level) maternity institution in Guangzhou

Core Technologies

1. Critical Neonatal Care (NICU)

With 10 NICU beds and dedicated neonatal conventional- and high-frequency oscillatory ventilators, non-invasive ventilators, T-piece resuscitators, high-grade incubators and phototherapy equipment, the department has extensive experience treating premature infants, very-low-birth-weight infants, meconium aspiration syndrome, neonatal hyaline membrane disease, neonatal pulmonary hemorrhage, neonatal pulmonary hypertension and hyperbilirubinemia. It has successfully treated multiple extremely preterm infants (EPI) below 28 weeks' gestation and extremely low birth weight infants (ELBWI) under 1,000 g, as well as critically ill newborns hovering at the edge of life.

2. Integrated Chinese–Western Treatment of Neonatal Jaundice

Director Liu Jianhan (刘建华) of Pediatrics found through comparative clinical study that the combination of Chinese herbal medicine and phototherapy is significantly more effective than either Chinese medicine or phototherapy alone — offering faster resolution of jaundice and less rebound after it clears. The research project was approved and funded by the Panyu District Science and Technology Bureau; it minimizes "heat-clearing and detoxifying" herbs while adding spleen-and-stomach-strengthening herbs to avoid harming the newborn's digestion. The department treats nearly 100 jaundice cases requiring treatment each month.

3. Multidisciplinary Teamwork (MDT): A 4-Day-Old with Amniotic Band Syndrome

The hospital once treated a 4-day-old newborn with amniotic band syndrome — a rare condition with an incidence of about 1/15,000. A team led by Director Huang Shandong (黄山东) of Traumatic Orthopedics, working with Anesthesiology, performed amniotic band release, syndactyly separation and macrodactyly reconstruction; intraoperative blood loss was only 3 ml. After careful nursing by the neonatology team, the baby recovered well and was discharged — a case that shows the department's ability to "race against time" together with surgery, anesthesiology and imaging.

Expert Team

Prof. Zhang Youxiang (张又祥) — Director of the Pediatric Center, Chief Physician, Professor, Master's Supervisor (Pediatrics, Child Healthcare & Rehabilitation, Neonatology):

• Graduated from the Department of Pediatrics, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology; former Director of Pediatrics at Guangzhou First People's Hospital
• Over 40 years in pediatric clinical care, teaching and research; focuses on neonatal diseases and pediatric digestive diseases, and specializes in complex pediatric conditions, critical illness and infant/child health
• Has published 86 academic papers in China and abroad; honored as "Third Guangzhou Good Doctor" and selected for the 2019–2022 "Lingnan Famous Doctors Directory"
• Clinical visiting scholar at St. Louis Children's Hospital, Washington University (USA)
• Chairman of the Neonatology Branch of the Guangzhou Medical Association and Vice Chairman of the Neonatology Branch of the Guangdong Medical Association

Dr. Li Meng (李梦) — Associate Chief Physician, Master of Traditional Chinese Medicine; specializes in integrated Chinese–Western treatment of neonatal diseases and premature-infant healthcare; over 10 years in pediatrics at tertiary hospitals.

Dr. Liang Dandan (梁丹丹) — Attending Physician, Master of Medicine; completed advanced training in the NICU of Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center; specializes in premature infants, very-low-birth-weight infants, sepsis, neonatal hyaline membrane disease and neonatal jaundice.

The team also includes Dr. Mu Yudan (慕玉丹), Dr. Zhang Qin (张琴), Dr. Xiao Xiaofang (肖小芳), Dr. Zhou Youliang (周有亮) and Dr. Peng Jingling (彭静玲) — attending physicians trained at tertiary hospitals and in advanced NICU/neonatology programs, covering premature-infant care, VLBW infants, neonatal infection, asphyxia and hyperbilirubinemia.

Conditions Treated

Critical neonatal care:

• Extremely preterm infants (below 28 weeks' gestation, EPI) and extremely low birth weight infants (under 1,000 g, ELBWI)
• Management of premature and very-low-birth-weight infants
• Neonatal hyaline membrane disease (neonatal respiratory distress syndrome)
• Neonatal pulmonary hemorrhage and neonatal pulmonary hypertension
• Meconium aspiration syndrome / amniotic fluid aspiration syndrome
• Neonatal asphyxia and neonatal pneumonia

Common neonatal diseases and specialty care:

• Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (pathological neonatal jaundice), with integrated Chinese–Western treatment (phototherapy + Chinese medicine)
• Neonatal infection / sepsis
• Healthcare for premature infants and post-discharge follow-up
• Other common and frequently occurring neonatal diseases

Hospital Information

Guangdong Clifford Hospital No. 1 & No. 3 Hongfu Road, Panyu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

• Phone: (020) 84518222
• Website: www.clifford-hospital.org
• International Medical Department: [email protected] | Overseas hotline +86 400 900 3823 | WhatsApp +86 188 1411 5985

If your child also needs longer-term developmental follow-up, see our guide to child healthcare & rehabilitation at Clifford; families comparing top neonatology teams in China may also want to read about neonatology at the Red House, Shanghai.

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Department rosters, on-duty specialists and clinic schedules are subject to the hospital's daily official announcements; please refer to the latest official information. If you need assistance with consultation, appointment booking or travel arrangements to Clifford Hospital's Department of Neonatology, contact Medora for personalized support.