Doctors in five mainland cities will find it much easier to set up private clinics under a new pilot programme announced by the Ministry of Health.
The move is being hailed as a boon to health care administrators, doctors and patients. Large public hospitals may also become less congested as more patients seek treatment from private practitioners.
Private clinics are common in the mainland, but local health care administrators set quotas on the number of licences granted. An unidentified official with the ministry's medical administration department said that will now change, and it should now be much easier for doctors to obtain permission to open their own clinics as long as they are qualified.
The year-long pilot scheme starts tomorrow, months after the State Council promised to attract more private investment in mainland health care services. That pledge arose out of sweeping medical reforms launched in April 2009 that aimed to improve a system deemed too expensive and inaccessible.
'Encouraging qualified doctors to run private clinics will play an important role in encouraging and guiding non-public capital to set up medical services,' the ministry said on its website. 'It will also help make medical services more accessible.'
Administrators of both conventional and traditional Chinese medicine services in the five cities - Tianjin , Shenyang, Changchun, Xiamen and Kunming - have been ordered to draft implementation plans and encourage qualified doctors to set up clinics in their communities, the website statement said.
