Shenzhen will build 405 private clinics in 2006 in order to ease
its severe hospital shortage, the health bureau said Tuesday.
The health bureau has received 1,369 applications to open
clinics, and health experts are grading the applicants according to
location, personnel and facilities. The health bureau plans to
further open up the health sector to private investment, as the
city's government-funded public hospitals can hardly meet the
demand. Shenzhen's per capita distribution of hospital beds is
among the lowest in big Chinese cities.
However, many people are reluctant to visit private clinics
although they are much cheaper and less crowded than public
hospitals, because services at such clinics are not covered by most
insurance companies or government-sponsored social insurance.
Others don't trust private clinics, although all private clinics
are required to have licensed doctors and nurses.
Thirty of the 240 private clinics opened in 2004 are facing
closure and 50 percent are losing money, an investigation
shows.
The spokesperson said an additional 12,000 hospital beds and 900
doctors would be added between 2006 and 2010, when there will be at
least one clinic for every 10,000 people.
(Shenzhen Daily March 2, 2006)
