Private hospitals begin to nurse big ambitions(3)

Lack of support

The lack of support for private hospitals is the reason 50-year-old Huang Shu, a well-known spine surgeon who left a public hospital in northwest China in 2002 to set up a private hospital, said he regretted his decision.

"If I could make the choice again, I would definitely stay in the public hospital," he said.

His hospital, which provides his own unique treatment, receives around 300 patients every day, some of whom are from foreign countries - during our conversation, he received a phone call from an official from Australia who wanted to make an appointment - but even so, the hospital costs a lot to run. The rent for the four-story building is nearly 200 million yuan ($31.44 million) a year.

The Chaoyang district government has helped him find a new building that he will move his hospital to this year and has given him 70,000 yuan in financial support. Huang also operates two clinics in Indonesia and these help financially support his hospital in Beijing.

"But we still feel helpless. From a policy prospective, private hospitals should get the same support as public ones," he said.

Huang said it is difficult getting medical insurance to cover his unique treatments, as in China medical insurance is linked to the costs of the medical treatments and medicines that are provided by public hospitals.

But he said another problem is he can't compete with public hospitals when it comes to attracting new doctors.

"Graduates from well-known medical colleges want a Beijing hukou (the highly sought after residence permit) as well as an apartment, which most public hospitals in the city can provide. But for us, all these are impossible," he said.

And another reason talented doctors are hard to find is that even though private hospitals offer higher incomes, doctors working in private hospitals have difficulty moving up the professional ladder. This is because in China the public department that manages the hospital, for example the local health bureau or a certain institute, is in charge of doctor certification. In order to avoid being held responsible for any possible lawsuits in cases of malpractice, some departments delay or refuse to give new certificates to doctors working in private hospitals.

"For senior professional titles, such as deputy-chief and chief physician, we can qualify for the title by passing the national test, but we can't get a certificate," said Xiong Ning, an ophthalmologist, who previously worked in two public hospitals in Beijing, but who moved to the Jia Yue Eye Surgery Centre, under the Singapore Medical Group, a few months ago.

However, Xiong said she decided to join Jia Yue, because the public hospitals she worked in did not specialize in eye surgery and she wanted professional development. Jia Yue offers her opportunities to go abroad to learn new techniques.