Opinions on speeding up non-public investment in health development

(chinadaily.com.cn)

Updated: 2014-06-10

c. Optimize health resources allocation

Departments should strictly control public hospital development scale based on total quantity control, structural adjustment and appropriate scale, and set aside enough space for non-public investment in health development. When meeting basic public medical needs, they should support and choose reputable private investment with strong management and service abilities in areas abounding in public hospital resources. They should participate in reform and regrouping of some public hospitals (including hospitals run by State-owned enterprises) through various forms. Departments should clarify and standardize reform methods, procedures and conditions, fully listen to employees’ opinions to ensure their legitimate rights and interests, and avoid state-owned assets loss.

3. Step up support for non-public investment in health development

a. Departments should establish an open, transparent, equal and standardized non-public medical access system. They should relax the scope of sole proprietorship hospitals set up by foreign capital in the Chinese mainland, and extend sole proprietorship hospitals set up by Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan service providers in the mainland to cities at the prefecture level and above, following the principle of gradual liberalization and risk control. Other qualified foreign capital can set up sole proprietorship hospitals at the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free-Trade Zone and other special zones. They should properly set up foreign capital ratio requirements in sino-foreign equity joint venture and cooperative medical institutions, and devolve review and approval authority on the provincial level.

b. Broaden service requirements

Any field that is not specifically banned by laws and regulations should open to private investmentnon-public capital. Private investment should be encouraged to go directly into scarce resources and meet multi-element service requirements, establish rehabilitation and geriatrics hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care hospitals, large-scale medical institutions or hospital conglomerates. Departments should encourage private sector to develop traditional Chinese medicine institutions or specialized hospitals, encourage pharmaceutical trading enterprises to hold on-site traditional Chinese medicine clinics, and encourage qualified professional traditional Chinese medicine personnel, especially old famous traditional Chinese medicine doctors, to open clinics.

c. Bulk out large medical equipment configuration

All regions should make a scientific plan of large medical equipment configuration, strictly control public medical institutions configuration, give full consideration to the needs of non-public medical institutions development, and follow the principal of equipment configuration of no less than 20 percent in non-public medical institutionss. The regions should focus on qualification and technical strength and take into account the number of beds and patients when dealing with a non-public medical institutions’s application for equipment, based on the principle of meeting their reasonable demand and safeguarding medical quality and safety. The newly-established non-public medical institutionss can go through configuration review on planned departments and personnel. If they meet standards, they can purchase equipment first and then officially make configuration plans after expert review and all professional personnel are in place. They should actively guide and support medical institutions, and build a large medical equipment inspection center in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State. They should form joint development, use, and management and sharing mechanisms to boost reasonable resources utilization. They should also push for medical institution inspection above the second class to open to all medical institutions.