Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    A SHENZHEN-BASED doctors group will receive investment of at least 1 billion yuan (US$145.26 million) from a consortium led by former Hong Kong Finance Secretary Antony Leung Kam-chung to build a number of medical facilities in Guangdong Province.

    Best Unimed Medical Group, the first doctors group to have obtained a business license in China, signed the deal Tuesday with New Frontier, a Hong Kong and Shanghai-based investment firm, in which Nan Fung Group is a substantial investor. Leung is co-founder and chairman of New Frontier.

    The huge funding, according to Prof. Xie Rushi, founder and CEO of Best Unimed, would fill the health-care services gap faced by Shenzhen residents, as well as the 160,000 Hong Kongers and 30,000 expatriates living in Shenzhen.

    In the longer term, Xie said, those residing in other parts of Guangdong Province would also benefit.

    Xie said that they were planning to attract Hong Kong doctors to serve at the two new hospitals and about 20 clinics in Guangdong they are going to build by offering them insurance coverage.

    These incoming medical facilities would be managed “Hong Kong style” and Hong Kong doctors would not have to sit for extra examinations to practice in Shenzhen, he said.

    “Economic development in the area is getting more active. Medical demands are expected to increase with economic growth,” he added.

    Best Unimed, which was established a year ago, employs more than 300 doctors who charge a minimum consultation fee of 500 yuan. A new type of medical service operation different from hospitals and clinics, it helps licensed doctors work at multiple medical institutions, and has been touted as an important step in Shenzhen’s medical reform to introduce more well-known doctors from outside the city.

    “We hope that people in Shenzhen can enjoy medical services on a par with those in Hong Kong, but even more efficient than Hong Kong’s,” Xie said. “The population in the delta is wealthier now.”

    The medical group has been in touch with the Hong Kong government on the possibility of using health-care vouchers given out by the government at its outlets.

    The voucher program, first launched in 2009, allows Hong Kong’s elderly to purchase primary medical care services. Since 2015, eligible Hong Kong senior citizens have also been using the vouchers at the University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital.