Hospital management conference welcomes liberalization of health care
The national health authority will relax restrictions on private health facilities to encourage the involvement of the private sector in the health industry.
Doctors and nurses are also to be given freedom to work in more than one medical facility and run their own facilities, health officials told a conference over the weekend in Shanghai.
The International Conference on China Hospital Development and Management is organized by Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
Gong Xiangguang from the National Health Commission spoke of the government’s efforts to encourage private medical facilities.
“The government has relaxed requirements on location and beds for private facilities. They only need to promise to meet the criteria when applying to introduce large medical equipment. The duty of the government is monitoring and inspection afterwards,” Gong said. “The restriction for foreign investment in joint venture facilities has also been removed. Previously, foreign investment couldn’t be more than 70 percent.”
Registration of doctors has changed from one medical facility to a region, so any doctor can serve in any licensed facility in the region instead of just one hospital.
“Similar reform will be introduced for nurses soon,” Gong added.
The threshold for doctors to open their own facilities has also been greatly lowered.
“Since 2015, we have introduced standards for ten independent facilities, which means hospitals needn’t have all departments but can share one independent facility such as a laboratory testing center and an imaging center,” Gong said. “Hospitals in the same region can use independent facilities to share resource and meet patient demand. It will be especially welcomed by small private hospitals and clinics.”
Governmental officials, health experts and hospital presidents from home and abroad participated the conference.
