Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

SHENZHEN has taken significant steps to promote medical reforms and introduced innovative mechanisms to revamp its healthcare system, according to a city official at a press conference hosted by the National Health Commission in Shenzhen yesterday.

The city has taken a pioneering role in the cancellation of drug markups and the purchase of drugs and medical consumables through centralized procurement. These efforts have led to savings of 14 billion yuan (US$1.92 billion) in procurement costs, said Chen Qing, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee.

Since 2021, Shenzhen has spent a total of 180.5 billion yuan on health care, with an average annual growth rate of 11%, according to Chen.

He added that in 2023, personal health expenditure accounted for 16.2% of the city’s total health expenditure, which indicates that the burden of medical treatment on residents had been greatly reduced.

Chen emphasized that Shenzhen has made a significant stride in advancing the internationalization of China’s International Hospital Accreditation Standards, which were compiled by the Shenzhen Hospital Accreditation Research Center.

On Sunday, the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital became the first Hong Kong hospital to be accredited under the standards, which marked a key milestone in cross-border medical evaluation.

On the same day, the Shenzhen Hospital Accreditation Research Center Hong Kong Office was opened, which will help expand the standards to countries and regions along the Belt and Road and throughout the world.

The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH) represents a collaborative medical endeavor between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It has implemented innovative strategies and achieved notable success in fostering cross-border integration of healthcare services, according to Xu Xiaoping, Party chief of the hospital.

As the first mainland hospital to pioneer the remote settlement of Hong Kong medical service fees, HKU-SZH has implemented a pilot scheme for supporting patients of Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority and the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme, providing services for Hong Kong patients more than 167,000 times, Xu said.

Additionally, it has taken the initiative to pilot direct cross-boundary ambulance transfers and the Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Equipment Connect program.

“To date, it has received approval to utilize 27 imported medications and 17 imported medical devices, with over 5,000 instances of use. The insights gained from this pilot have been expanded to 45 designated medical institutions across nine cities within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area,” Xu noted.

For talent connectivity, a mechanism has been set up to align the professional titles of Hong Kong physicians with their mainland counterparts, resulting in 37 esteemed Hong Kong doctors being awarded senior professional titles. They now enjoy equal status in terms of job appointments, research project initiation, and academic discipline development.