Want China Times, Xinhua 2014-09-01
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| People line up at a children's hospital in Shanxi. (File photo/Xinhua) |
The Chinese
government's green-lighting of wholly overseas-funded private hospitals this
week will have brought a smile to the faces of people like Benny Li.
Li, a
senior manager of a US-based internet company in Beijing, did not consider
private treatment until he became aware of the huge discrepancy in service
standards between overseas-invested hospitals and their local counterparts in
2012.
One day
that year, Li rushed to a local hospital after injuring his head in an
accident. Pressing the bleeding wound with a hand, he waited for 40 minutes,
along with several other patients suffering burns or cuts, before having three
stitches put in his head.
"An
old nurse kept telling us, 'No hurry, you won't die anyway,'" he recalled.
Frustrated, days later Li for the first time went to a US-invested hospital in
the Chinese capital, for a check up on his head wound.
"The
doctor was amazed. He said he had never seen such sparse stitches, and
carefully redid the job," Li said. Since then, the 34-year-old has been a
die-hard fan of the hospital.
"In
this hospital, you don't need to line up for hours to have a five-minute talk
with a weary doctor, or speculate on how many kickbacks he gets from the
medicine he prescribes," he said.
On
Wednesday, the Chinese government said it will allow private hospitals solely
owned by overseas investors to open in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Jiangsu,
Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan, all in the country's developed eastern and
southern regions.
Authorities
and analysts believe that the opening up of China's healthcare sector will
boost the development of more high-end medical services and inspire public
hospitals to up their game.
In late
July, German healthcare provider Artemed Group signed an agreement to establish
a hospital in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ). It will be the first
wholly overseas-funded medical institution in the FTZ, launched last September
as part of China's opening-up drive.
Currently,
overseas-funded hospitals operating in the country are mostly joint ventures
with Chinese investors. Only two private hospitals, one in Shanghai and the
other in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, are solely funded by Taiwan and Hong
Kong investors respectively.
Overseas-invested
hospitals generally provide better service and ease the shortage of high-end
medical institutions in Beijing, said Zhong Dongbo, deputy head of the Beijing
Health and Family Planning Commission.
What
China's medical market needs is advanced management expertise, service,
equipment and technology, said Pan Zhongying, president of Beijing United
Family Hospital, which was founded in 1997 and is now China's largest
overseas-invested healthcare provider.
Wholly
overseas-funded hospitals play a supplementary role in China's healthcare
sector, according to Zhuang Yiqiang, deputy secretary general of the Chinese
Hospital Association.
Chen Yude,
professor with Peking University's Health Science Center, expects the
competition following the entry of overseas-owned hospitals to push forward the
reform of China's public healthcare institutions.
Chen said
overseas-invested hospitals will deal a blow to their local counterparts since
they will scramble for talented medical staff as well as patients.
Overseas-invested
hospitals mainly serve foreigners working or living in China and high-income
Chinese citizens, while China's healthcare sector is expected to be worth 8
trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion) by 2020.
According
to the National Health and Family Planning Commission, non-public healthcare
institutions account for 47% of the country's total, however, the number of
beds they provide takes up only 11%. This is expected to reach 20% by 2015.
Public
hospitals provide 90% of China's medical services and most Chinese patients
like to go to large public hospitals in big cities for medical treatment,
leading to overcrowding.
In terms of
funding and service standards, wholly overseas-funded hospitals are superior to
local private ones, said Cai Jiangnan, a healthcare researcher with the China
Europe International Business School in Shanghai.
"[The
new ruling] is a good thing for ordinary people because overseas-funded
hospitals will be a competitor for Chinese private and public hospitals,"
he said.
But others
stated that there are challenges that new private hospitals will face too,
adding that there needs to be development in related fields if private
healthcare is to really take off.
Ordinary
people have to first face the relatively high prices in overseas-funded
hospitals. Currently, such costs cannot be covered by their basic medical
insurance.
Taiwanese-owned
Shanghai Landseed International Hospital, founded in 2002, has the capacity to
receive 800 to 1,000 patients for clinical services each day, but the number
they actually receive is only 300 to 400.
"The
service is good there, but the costs cannot be covered by our medical
insurance. The hospital is for the rich," said a Shanghai resident who
declined to be named.
Given the
market-oriented pricing of overseas-funded hospitals, China should encourage the
development of the commercial health insurance industry to relieve the pressure
on individuals who only have basic medical insurance, said Liang Hong, vice
president of the China Health Insurance Research Association.
Staff
recruitment also poses a challenge for overseas-funded hospitals. Under Chinese
law, overseas doctors practicing clinical and treatment services in China must
renew their registration every year.
Since 2009,
China has loosened restrictions on doctors in terms of their being allowed to
practice in multiple medical institutions, but the flow of medical staff in
public hospitals still faces some barriers, according to experts.
"We
must wait and see how the prospects for overseas-funded hospitals develop. The
key lies in the overall further opening up and reform of China's medical
services market," said Zhu Hengpeng, a public policy expert at the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences.
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