Doctors and medical service providers in this special
administrative region (SAR) may soon be able to run wholly owned
clinics and hospitals on the mainland, a source said.
The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong will sign an annexe to the
Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) this summer, which
will give the green light to Hong Kong service providers to set up
the clinics, a source familiar with the CEPA said.
That will mark a big opening of the mainland's medical market,
and Hong Kong doctors will be the immediate beneficiaries.
The licensees will have to be permanent residents of Hong Kong
and be recognized by the local hospital authority. They will also
need to have had a medical license for over five years and they
must pass a qualification tests.
Qualified Hong Kong medical workers are allowed to run
self-owned or joint-venture clinics, hospitals and medical
centers.
Currently, overseas investors are allowed to run joint venture
hospitals on the mainland, and the mainland partner must hold no
less than a 30 percent stake.
The central government is now hoping to bring Hong Kong's
quality medical services to the mainland, especially to community
clinics that lag behind in services and facilities, the source
said.
The government will not interfere when it comes to prices and
locations, but doctors are encouraged to head to western
region.
Hospitals and clinics to open in western China will enjoy
favorable tax policies and lower investment and property costs.
Banking on the country's massive population and fast-growing
economy, overseas medical groups started tapping the mainland
market as early as the late 1980s.
By the end of 2006, over 100 overseas medical institutions had
set up joint ventures with their local counterparts, and Hong Kong
institutions accounted for over 30 percent.
Since the agreement was first introduced in 2003, more than 100
medical professionals in Hong Kong have written the CEPA
qualification test and roughly 60 have passed.
Mainland consumers have welcomed overseas medical groups,
arguing that overseas groups create competition with local firms
and therefore boost the healthcare market.
A survey conducted by a market-consulting firm that interviewed
over 500 middle-class mainlanders found that 86 percent of
respondents think the current healthcare system is unsatisfactory,
while 54 percent said they would turn to overseas medical service
providers.
Respondents of the survey, which covered Beijing, Shanghai,
Guangzhou, and Chengdu, indicated that Hong Kong clinics would only
benefit mainland's upper classes who can afford the high charges of
overseas-educated doctors.
"Patrons of Hong Kong or foreign doctors are mostly celebrities,
rich businessmen, Hong Kong and Macao investors and expatriates who
live on the mainland," the report said.
Nevertheless, overseas-funded hospitals will bring a better
quality of services and create competition among medical groups, it
said.
(China Daily June 15, 2007)