Anne Zhang, Henry Xiao

    zhangy49@gmail.com

    FOREIGN investors will be encouraged to establish medical institutions in Shenzhen as part of the city’s efforts to ease the shortage of medical services, according to the city’s draft medical regulations.

    Shenzhen Economic Special Zone Medical Regulations, said to be the first set of local rules of its kind in China, aims at regulating some of the urgent problems in the city’s medical services industry, including the allocation of medical resources, medical liability insurance and medical disputes, said Xu Sihu, vice director of Shenzhen Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission.

    Chinese individuals and legal entities, including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, can apply to establish medical institutions in Shenzhen, according to the draft regulations.

    Foreign firms will also be allowed to run medical institutions in the city in the form of a joint venture or a sole proprietorship if the draft is adopted.

    Practitioners with medical licenses from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan or foreign countries must register and obtain a license in Shenzhen before practicing medicine in the city, according to the draft.

    The city’s fiscal expenditures in public health care accounted for 6.6 percent of its total expenditures in 2012. Although that rate has increased each year since 2009, it is still lower than the national average, Xu said.

    The draft states that the city government and district governments must allocate at least 8 percent of their budgets on medical services.

    To relieve the shortage of doctors, the city, learning from experiences in Western countries, will allow Shenzhen-registered doctors to work at more than one medical institution in the city, according to the draft.