CHINA: New Hospitals Target Chinese Medical Tourists In China

Chinese healthcare groups seek to stop Chinese going overseas for care and tests. Developer Dalian Wanda is investing $2.3 billion in private hospitals in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Qingdao.

Several Chinese healthcare groups are targeting those Chinese who tend to go overseas with a range of new facilities offering tests and surgery. Reversing the trend of outbound Chinese medical tourists is now a question of when not if.

Chinese domestic medical tourism is increasing and these hospitals and clinics target the better off Chinese who can afford to travel for treatment.

Developer Dalian Wanda is investing $2.3 billion in private hospitals in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Qingdao by building three hospitals run by British healthcare operator International Hospitals Group. These hospitals target the affluent consumer in China who travels to the UK and the USA for a variety of medical treatments because they do not trust doctors at home. The other target is the growing middle-class traveller drawn to Hong Kong and South Korea.

Ciming Health Checkup Management Croup plans to save the long-distance trips by those seeking advanced medical services abroad by bringing in some of the best foreign doctors, medicines and equipment to a hospital and a fertility centre in the pilot medical tourism zone in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan.

The Hainan Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone seeks to be a major medical tourism destination within 10 years. The central government is supporting its development by offering a number of preferential policies under which foreign companies can set up medical organizations in the zone and foreign doctors are allowed to practise there for up to three years.20 medical projects, including Ciming's, are being established in the zone, which began construction in August 2015 and is expected to start operation in 2017.

The pilot zone offers international investors a number of preferential policies including:

- Fast-track approval for new drugs, technology and medical devices
- Extending up to three years the time foreign doctors are allowed to practice medicine
- Allowing 100% foreign direct investment and ownership in hospitals
- Reduction of tariffs on medical devices and equipment

It is expected that in the next several years, 10% of overnight visitors to the Pilot Zone will be medical tourists, mostly domestic, accounting for 20% of Hainan’s tourism industry revenue.