Keywords
Citation
(2005), "China", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 18 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2005.06218EAC.006
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2005, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
China
Far East
China
Beijing: how should international companies doing business in China participate in China’s development of a modern healthcare delivery system in both the urban and rural sectors?
Keywords: Quality of Life, Health services, Partnership, Service delivery systems, China
China has made extraordinary strides in the development of its market economy. As these strides continue, advances in the quality of the life of its citizens surely will follow. The interrelationship between business and labor during the inevitable accompanying social change is however a complex one – and one that cannot be avoided.
As an integral part of these advances, China is now actively seeking to elevate the quality of its healthcare delivery system. At the same time, the international healthcare business community desires to assist China with its healthcare delivery expertise, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, wellness strategies, and other healthcare goods and services. All of these products and services are however very expensive – particularly in a nation of 1.3 billion consumers.
The developed world is therefore both an eager seller of healthcare goods and services and an eager buyer of the things that able and low-cost Chinese labor can produce.
It is at this nexus – the desire to supply a population with improved healthcare technologies and services and the international business community’s increasing use of China’s efficient and expert labor – that there may be an opportunity for all parties to support the development of an improved healthcare infrastructure in China.
In the developed world, corporations are accustomed to increasing the quality of life for their workers with the understanding that high levels of productivity cannot be separated from the whole of their existence – education, healthcare, etc. Business is also cognizant that its success, and thereby the success of its workers, will inevitably lead to greater expectations between workers and business managers.
Those that wish to sell healthcare goods and services in China see a vast market despite the fact that unless there is a means for China to pay for these healthcare goods and services, there is no market. It is for this reason that it could also be argued that the better the quality of life in China, the more attractive will be China as a business partner for the international community.
The government of China in partnership with the Global Medical Forum Foundation is interested in pursuing this nexus: how should international companies doing business in China participate in China’s development of a modern healthcare delivery system?
The Chinese Ministry of Health and the Global Medical Forum Foundation will explore this topic in a Summit to be held in Beijing in the fall of 2005. There are a number of issues that could be productively discussed, in this first in an annual series of meetings in both Beijing and Shanghai. A three-day Summit program and preparation model is being developed during the spring and summer of 2005.
For more information: www.globalmedicalforum.org