SHANGHAI: To meet the need for high-end healthcare services among foreign communities and wealthy people in the Yangtze River Delta areas, the construction of a joint-ventured Sino-German Friendship Hospital will begin later this year in Shanghai International Medical Zone.

Tongji University (TJ) in Shanghai yesterday reached an agreement with two German investors: Siemens Project Venture GmbH (SPV) under Siemens AG and Asklepios Kliniken, a major private hospital operator in Europe. The three sides signed a memorandum of understanding for jointly funding and building the hospital during President Hu Jintao's state visit to Germany last November.

"The rapid economic development in China has brought up much need for high-end medical service, which is especially reflected by the World Expo 2010," Vice-Mayor Yang Xiaodu said during the signing ceremony.

The Sino-German Friendship Hospital will see a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan (US$190 million). Located in Shanghai International Medical Zone in Nanhui District of the city, the hospital will have an overall construction area of 84,000 square metres and 1,000 beds, providing all major fields of health care services.

Last year's statistics show that more than 60,000 foreigners are working or studying in Shanghai, with another 200,000 visiting the city each year. However, many foreigners have to seek medical services in their home countries or fly to Hong Kong or Singapore because the service, technology and management of hospitals in the city still lag behind those in developed countries.

The Sino-German Friendship Hospital is considering this potential market in Shanghai and its surrounding areas. The hospital will serve as a major medical institution for international visitors for the World Expo, the city's largest international event in 2010. By the end of 2008, the first phase of the hospital will be completed with 500 beds, 21 outpatient centres and specialties, and four medical technology centres.

As an affiliated hospital to TJ, the hospital said it will introduce a leading hospital management concept and hire staff from China and abroad. "Thirty per cent of the hospital's medical staff will be recruited from overseas, and Chinese doctors and nurses will have an opportunity of studying in Germany for one or two years," said Professor Dong Qi, Tongji's assistant president.

Dong said that the hospital will be listed in the medical insurance system of Germany or other European countries, thus solving the medical assurance problem for expatriates in China. Besides health care service, the institute will be built into a medical education and research centre for life science.

(China Daily 04/10/2006 page2)

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