First joint public-private eye center established

Tongji Hospital’s Shanghai Xinshijie Eye Center, the city’s first eye medical center set up by a public hospital and a private health group, started operation in Changning District Tuesday.

It is an effective cooperation trial to help solve the big workload and large number of patients in public hospitals, while boosting the development of private health facilities, health officials said.

Through the cooperation, doctors at Tongji Hospital can serve at the private Xinshijie Eye Hospital, which previously faced very limited resources in the public hospital.

While doctors from the private hospital work with doctors from Tongji, they can receive more chances to see diversified and complicated surgeries and patients, and the private hospital can make better use of its resources as private hospitals usually have much less patients.

"It is a good trial under the city's health reform and encouraging for the development of the private health sector," said Zhang Rong, vice director of Changning District Health Commission.