Zhang Yang

nicolezyyy@163.com

THE city has introduced new standards for clinic operation, which specify that residents, corporations and social organizations can apply to run a clinic in Shenzhen. The previous standards stipulated that only licensed doctors with at least five years of work experience could run clinics in the city, according to a press release from the city’s health and family planning commission.

The new standards mark a breakthrough for health-care reform in Shenzhen, as it is the first city in China to allow individuals other than doctors to run clinics. Coming into effect today, the new standards will solicit more social resources to set up privately run clinics in the city.

The spokesperson of Distinct HealthCare, an upmarket private pediatric clinic, said the previous rules had failed to keep up with the development of privately run clinics and chain medical centers in the city.

He said the new policy will promote the development of nongovernment health-care services, which will also expedite health-care reform in Shenzhen.

Without setting up a threshold of registered capital for the clinic operators, the new standards note that each clinic should have at least a consulting room, a treatment room and a disposal room. It means that the clinics don’t have to set up other medical facilities, such as a laboratory or pharmacy, as they could contract the services from a third-party agency, which will reduce costs and save space for the clinics.

The new policy also allows the private clinics to give more than one kind of diagnosis to a patient based on the patient’s needs. According to the new standards, each clinic can set up to four diagnosis subjects, while the previous rules only allowed a clinic to set up one diagnosis subject and clinics offering more than one diagnosis subject would face penalties.

However, the new standards don’t apply to traditional Chinese medicine clinics.

By the end of September, there were 2,706 registered clinics and 630 community medical centers in Shenzhen.

According to the report, the new standards will promote the growth of privately run clinics to make up for the insufficient medical resources in suburban areas and enhance the diversity of grass-roots medical services in the city.