Health Service Centre for Hong Kong and Macau Residents.
With the promulgation of the Measures for Supporting the Development of Hong Kong and Macao Medical Institutions in the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone, Qianhai's first international community health care (Hong Kong and Macao Residents Health Service Center), jointly operated by the Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone Hospital and the Hong Kong Greater Bay Area Medical Group, was officially opened.
Through the introduction of Hong Kong's gold medal general medical team, the community health care provides Hong Kong-style diagnosis and treatment services for Hong Kong and Macao residents and international people living in Shenzhen, and also builds a landing platform for the implementation of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border connection "Institution Pass", "Hong Kong Medical Pass", "Medicine and Device Pass", "Hong Kong Insurance Pass" and "Standard Pass". This is a major measure by Shenzhen to promote the accelerated integration of the "Healthy Bay Area".
With the acceleration of the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, residents in the Greater Bay Area have become increasingly close exchanges, and enhancing the capacity of cross-border medical services has become an important part of the coordinated development process of the Greater Bay Area. As a leading demonstration of the high-level integrated development of medical care in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, Shenzhen has been taking the national comprehensive reform pilot as the traction, continuously deepening the integrated development of medical services in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and creating a new highland for the innovation and development of cross-border medical services.
At the 3rd Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Health Co-operation Conference held recently, three Shenzhen-Hong Kong co-operation achievements, including "Shenzhen-Hong Kong Cooperation in Establishing International Hospital Accreditation Standards", "Shenzhen Optimizing the Medical Practice Environment for Hong Kong and Macao in Shenzhen", and "Shenzhen-Hong Kong Exploring the Convergence of Cross-border Medical Services", were selected as the "Top 10 Cases of Shaping a Healthy Bay Area", and <> Shenzhen-Hong Kong co-operation projects were signed on the spot, ranking first among all cities in the Greater Bay Area.
From the pilot construction of the HKU-Shenzhen Hospital, to the breaking of the barriers to the qualifications of doctors in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, to the implementation of the Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Medical Device Connect policy, Lotus Mountain and Lion Rock have "gone both ways", and the convergence of cross-border medical rules, factor flow and integrated development between Shenzhen and Hong Kong and Macao has become the general trend.
With the in-depth promotion of high-quality health development, Shenzhen will rely on the broad space of major platforms such as Qianhai and Hetao to continuously deepen the co-construction and sharing of high-quality medical resources, deepen the exchange of talents and technology and the convergence of rules, support a blue sky for a healthy Shenzhen, accelerate the construction of a healthy bay area, and contribute Shenzhen's strength to the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Author: Huang Sihua Photo provided by the interviewee
A citizen is handling relevant business at the Hong Kong Medicine Connect window.
Break down barriers
Enhance the environment for Hong Kong and Macao to run medical services in Shenzhen
Born in Hong Kong, he Xi studied and trained in the United Kingdom as an internationally recognized consultant nephrologist before being invited to join the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, where the chief physician of the Department of Nephrology, Bai Mingzhu, was one of the first Hong Kong doctors to join the experimental field of Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperative medical reform. As the "General Manager of the University" at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, she leads more than 7 doctors in 130 subspecialties under the University of Internal Medicine system.
Because of her teaching experience in the British Nephrology Federation, Pearl Bai has introduced the training experience of specialists from the UK and Hong Kong to Shenzhen, exploring the way for the mainland to explore the international "professional training" system. By exploring the establishment of a standardized training system for specialist doctors that is in line with international standards and recognized by the Mainland, Shenzhen and Hong Kong have jointly established a medical specialty training centre, which has provided an important platform for gathering Hong Kong and international first-class resources to carry out medical talent training and exchanges.
In recent years, Shenzhen has firmly grasped the opportunity of the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, continued to deepen and promote practical cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the field of health, and created many new institutions, new platforms and new carriers for Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation. In particular, in terms of optimizing the service providers of Hong Kong and Macao in Shenzhen, Shenzhen has frequently drunk "head soup" and bravely entered the deep-water area of reform.
For a long time, due to differences in systems and policies, Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland do not recognize each other's medical qualifications, and medical cooperation has been quite hampered. Taking surgical qualifications as an example, in the mainland, some difficult surgical qualifications are directly linked to professional titles, such as the fourth-level surgery of heart-lung transplantation, which can only be done by the chief physician, and if Hong Kong experts do not have this professional title, even if they come to Shenzhen, they cannot perform this kind of surgery.
In order to facilitate the cross-border flow of medical talents from Hong Kong and Macao to the Mainland, the country and Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have been exploring and moving forward. In April 2009, the former Ministry of Health promulgated the Administrative Measures for Doctors in the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions to Obtain the Qualification of Doctors in the Mainland, and the Administrative Measures for the Accreditation of Doctors in the Taiwan Region to Obtain the Qualification of Doctors in the Mainland, laying a policy foundation for promoting the cross-border practice of doctors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Hand drawn by the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital.
In Shenzhen, a new kind of Shenzhen-Hong Kong medical cooperation is underway - in July 2012, the HKU-Shenzhen Hospital, which was fully invested by the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government and introduced the Hong Kong hospital management model, was officially opened, thus opening a large number of Hong Kong doctors to start the "two-city model".
In recent years, Shenzhen has also created unprecedented relaxed conditions for Hong Kong and Macao wholly-owned medical institutions to open in Shenzhen, setting up a special handling window for medical institutions to set up approvals, and promising to handle the time limit of 15 working days. It is this initiative that promotes the agglomeration and development of medical institutions in Hong Kong and Macao. At present, Hong Kong has opened 12 medical institutions in Shenzhen, accounting for nearly <>% of the total number of similar institutions in the province. A number of high-end Hong Kong-funded medical institutions, such as Lam Shun Chao Eye Hospital, New Frontier United Family Hospital, and Hezheng Hospital, have developed in Shenzhen.
In terms of mutual recognition of doctors' qualifications, Shenzhen first broke down the barriers to the qualifications of doctors in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and carried out the recognition of professional titles of overseas medical professionals and technicians, enjoying the same policy treatment as mainland doctors. At the same time, Shenzhen has optimized the environment for Hong Kong and Macao-run medical practice, continued to optimize the approval process of Hong Kong and Macao medical institutions, simplified the qualification recognition and short-term medical practice permit procedures for Hong Kong and Macao doctors, and greatly shortened the time limit for the establishment of institutions and practice registration, as well as the time limit for Hong Kong and Macao medical professionals and technicians to practice.
In August 2021, Shenzhen awarded certificates of senior professional titles to 8 Hong Kong doctors working in Shenzhen, and Bai Mingzhu was one of them. "Due to the lack of corresponding professional titles, it was difficult for Hong Kong doctors to apply for topics in the mainland in the past, but now they have senior professional titles, which not only solves this problem, but also allows doctors to be more standardized in terms of surgical authorization and doctor training." Bai Mingzhu said.
Shenzhen's reform has made it more convenient for Hong Kong doctors to conduct medical treatment, scientific research and services in Shenzhen, and has also played a huge role in promoting and promoting the future exchanges between Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the fields of scientific research, teaching and medical treatment.
In order to encourage and guide more high-level Hong Kong and Macao doctors to practice in Shenzhen, in recent years, Shenzhen has introduced a number of measures to promote the cross-border connection of medical services, optimize the registration and practice of Hong Kong and Macao doctors in Shenzhen, and establish a recognition and conversion mechanism for Hong Kong specialist doctors to be in line with the current senior professional title evaluation. In June 2022, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Medical Regulations were amended and passed for the first time, taking the lead in realizing the multi-site practice of Hong Kong and Macao doctors.
In fact, not only Hong Kong doctors are practicing in Shenzhen, but more and more Hong Kong-style family doctor studios are landing in Shenzhen. Taking Yantian as an example, on February 2023, 2, the Hong Kong-style family doctor studio was unveiled at the Pengwan Community Health Center of Yantian District People's Hospital. According to the plan, the studio will introduce Hong Kong's gold-certified general practice family doctors to sit in consultations, and by 10, a total of 2025 gold-medal general practitioners and 30 community nurses will be trained in batches, and 30 Hong Kong-style family doctor studios will be built.
At present, there are 186 Hong Kong and Macao doctors who come to Shenzhen for short-term practice, accounting for 85% of the province's total. A total of 166 Hong Kong and Macao physicians have obtained the "Physician Practice Certificate" and have been practicing in Shenzhen for a long time, 37 Hong Kong doctors have been awarded senior professional titles, 8 overseas doctors have been appointed to special health posts, and 4 Hong Kong TCM physicians have been recruited by 6 Chinese medicine institutions.
It is this pioneering initiative that has enabled Hong Kong and Macao doctors to set off from Shenzhen and gradually move to other mainland cities. Not only have doctors from Hong Kong and Macao crossed the border to practice medicine, but also medical talents from the mainland have begun to flow to Hong Kong and Macao, which has truly promoted the flow of medical talents, capital, information and services from Shenzhen and Hong Kong through the Greater Bay Area.
Try it first
Shenzhen and Hong Kong explore cross-border medical service linkage
On the evening of December 2023, 12, it took only 16 minutes for a "beating" heart to complete quarantine clearance and Shenzhen-Hong Kong handover, leaving the Shenzhen Bay Port and heading straight to Hong Kong. At this time, the family of a 8-month-old child in Hong Kong, Zhixi, was anxiously waiting for a heart transplant. Xiao Zhixi, who was only 4 days old, was diagnosed with heart failure by the hospital as soon as she was born, and her life was critical, and this transplanted heart was the only way for Xiao Zhixi to extend her life. Under the wholehearted protection of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the first "relay of life" between the two places was successfully completed.
The first historic breakthrough in the sharing of human organs for emergency medical assistance between the Mainland and Hong Kong has laid a solid foundation for the sharing of cross-border organ transplantation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and is also a vivid practice of the integrated development of medical services between Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
With the continuous development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong has become closer, and the number of people traveling between Shenzhen and Hong Kong has gradually increased. As an important part of the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Pilot Demonstration Zone, the integrated development of medical services is not only a practical path to deepen the in-depth cooperation between the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, but also an important measure to promote the better integration of Hong Kong and Macao residents into the overall development of the country.
At the 3rd Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Health Co-operation Conference held recently, the Secretary for Health of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Lo Chung-mao, said that in recent years, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has actively explored cross-border collaboration, data exchange and medical innovation to help the construction of a healthy Bay Area, including the Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme for Elderly Health Care Vouchers, making good use of medical services in the Greater Bay Area, cross-border ambulance through trains, establishing a regular organ transplant mutual aid mechanism, and supporting the internationalization of national hospital accreditation standards.
Mr. Lau (pseudonym), a Hong Kong elder, is one of the beneficiaries of the policy. Thanks to the Hong Kong Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme, Mr. Lau can use the HKSAR Government's annual voucher amount of HK$2000,<> per person to go directly to the general outpatient clinic of the Lai Chi Court Community Health Service Centre of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital and prescribe drugs for chronic diseases such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia without returning to Hong Kong. "Very convenient!" Mr. Liu was full of praise for this.
As one of the major platforms for in-depth cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital has explored far more than this in the field of medical and health care.
In 2020, the State Food and Drug Administration and other 8 departments jointly issued the "Work Plan for the Regulatory Innovation and Development of Drugs and Medical Devices in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", proposing to allow designated medical institutions operating in 9 mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area to use drugs that are urgently needed clinically and have been marketed in Hong Kong and Macao, as well as medical devices that are urgently needed in clinical practice and have been purchased and used by public hospitals in Hong Kong and Macao, and have advanced clinical application.
On April 2021, 4, the policy was officially implemented, and the first imported drug anti-D immunoglobulin injection and the first medical device magnetic controllable extension titanium rod arrived at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, and was put into clinical use soon after, attracting widespread attention. Four and a half months later, on August 16, the Guangdong Provincial Food and Drug Administration and the Provincial Health Commission held a press conference to announce that the pilot had been completed and the scope of application had been expanded to more designated medical institutions.
As the country's first pilot hospital of the "Hong Kong and Macao Medicines and Medical Devices Connect", the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital has introduced 20 drugs and 11 devices so far, and the policy dividends have benefited patients from all over the country, and more than 2800,<> people have been treated. Not long ago, varenicline tartrate nasal spray for the treatment of dry eye was prescribed for the first time in the Greater Bay Area at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital. This is the first innovative drug to be listed in Macao and introduced to a designated medical institution in the Greater Bay Area through the "Hong Kong and Macao Medicines and Medical Devices Connect" policy and approved by the Guangdong Provincial Drug Administration.
In recent years, Shenzhen has given full play to the role of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital as a bridgehead in the cross-border connection of medical services, made full use of the key measures of the comprehensive authorization reform, built platforms, built channels, and created mechanisms, and explored and innovated the realization forms of Guangdong-Hong Kong people's livelihood services, such as Hong Kong's medical welfare transit, electronic medical record crossing, and the pilot trial of "Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Medical Device Pass", so as to facilitate the "small incision" of Hong Kong and Macao residents to seek medical treatment, and promote the "big changes" in the construction of a high-quality living circle that is suitable for living, working and traveling.
In August this year, the State Council issued the "Development Plan for the Shenzhen Park of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone in the Hetao", which added a strong force to the exchange and integrated development of the health field in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Go out into the world
Establish international hospital accreditation standards
As another major breakthrough in Shenzhen's comprehensive reform pilot, the "Hospital Quality International Accreditation Standard (China)", compiled by the Evaluation and Evaluation Research Center of Shenzhen Health Hospital in accordance with the principle of "standards only rise, not fall", lasted nearly a year, and passed the authoritative certification of the International Medical Quality Association External Review Committee (ISQua EEA) with high scores in 2022.
In this way, as long as the hospital that has passed the "Hospital Quality International Accreditation Standards (China)" can obtain international recognition, especially the recognition of international commercial insurance institutions, Hong Kong and Macao patients can directly use commercial insurance to see a doctor in the hospital.
The advent of the International Accreditation Standards for Hospital Quality (China) has just solved the difficulty of Hong Kong and Macao residents who have purchased international commercial insurance and cannot be reimbursed for medical treatment in the mainland. Prior to this, many foreign insurance companies had not yet recognized the evaluation standards of hospitals in the mainland, such as the "top three" hospitals, and the international mainstream hospital accreditation systems recognized by international insurance companies mainly included JCI in the United States and ACHS in Australia, but the vast majority of hospitals in the mainland did not obtain these certifications.
It can be said that the implementation of the "International Accreditation Standards for Hospital Quality (China)" has not only strengthened the cross-border connection between Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland, but also opened a new era of internationalization of hospitals in the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao.
As far as China is concerned, since 1989, when China issued a document to start the hierarchical management of hospitals and hospital evaluation, the hospital evaluation work has gone through a history of more than 30 years. Li Yongmei, vice president of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, said that they found in practice that the top three reviews are more detailed and strict than other standards in terms of medical quality and safety requirements, and can be fully integrated into foreign excellent practices and go international.
On 2019 February 2, the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area was officially promulgated. On the same day, the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital held an international hospital accreditation conference, and the then president Lu Chungmao made it clear that he would promote the evaluation of China's top three hospitals to the world.
The idea quickly gained provincial, municipal and national support. The "Opinions on Supporting Shenzhen to Build a Pilot Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" issued in 2019 and the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Reform of Shenzhen's Construction of a Pilot Demonstration Zone of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" issued in 2020 both put forward the reform task of exploring the establishment of a hospital evaluation and certification standard system in line with international standards.
In February 2022, the International Accreditation Standards for Hospital Quality (China) passed the international standard certification of the International External Review Committee of the International Medical Quality Association (ISQua EEA), becoming the first international version of the "Hospital Standards" in China, which can be used as a bridge for Chinese hospitals to go international.
Looking back now, it is self-evident that it is difficult to establish a hospital accreditation standard system that is in line with international standards, but the national level has never given up on integrating into the "international" trend. Shenzhen seized this opportunity, by striving for the support of the state's comprehensive authorization, gathering the "soft connectivity" of the rules and mechanisms of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and actively striving for the "establishment of a hospital evaluation and accreditation standard system in line with international standards" to be included in the first batch of authorization lists supported by the central government for the construction of the Shenzhen Pilot Demonstration Zone, taking the lead in carrying out the transformation of domestic and international standards, exploring more forms of "one regulation and three places" in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and fully releasing the "multiplier effect" of the superposition of the "dual zone" construction strategy.
Subsequently, Shenzhen adhered to the government-promoted, market-led, multi-party participation and coordinated promotion, and registered and established a non-profit third-party hospital evaluation and evaluation research center - Shenzhen Health Hospital Evaluation and Evaluation Research Center, which was clearly led by the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital, and set up "four expert committees" and "one reviewer database" of expert committee, standards and teaching committee, certification and audit committee, and risk quality and audit committee, so as to absorb international hospital evaluation and certification and domestic "top three" Senior experts with review qualifications form a team of review experts to carry out standard exchange and mutual recognition and applicability analysis and verification.
On March 2023, 3, the kick-off meeting of the first batch of hospital accreditation and certification of international standards (China) was held in Qianhai. 30 hospitals, including the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, participated in the first batch of certification, of which 13 were from Shenzhen, 5 were from Hong Kong, 4 were from Guangzhou, and 2 each from Beijing and Zhuhai.
It is worth mentioning that the review system is completely established in accordance with the international reviewer training system, not only the establishment of the reviewer training and development expert group, the innovative setting of the verification reviewer post responsible for the final verification system, the clarification of the reviewer selection, training, assessment, evaluation and management system, training and selection of 63 domestic and foreign hospital review and certification senior experts to form reviewers, but also online hospital review and evaluation management platform, innovative "intelligent review" model, to achieve all types of hospital review online application, the whole process of online review.
It can be said that the International Accreditation Standards for Hospital Quality (China) is compiled by benchmarking international rules, integrating domestic evaluation practices, summarizing the successful experience of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital in passing the ACHS accreditation and the triple three accreditation, and integrating the international hospital accreditation requirements on the basis of the evaluation standards of China's tertiary hospitals.
As a result, the mainland's hospital accreditation standards have gone to the world through Shenzhen and the Greater Bay Area.