Private hospitals in China: what the official statistics count and what national policy says

In China's national statistics, private hospitals (民营医院) are all hospitals other than public ones. The National Health Commission's statistical bulletin counts 26956 of them nationwide. National opinions set out how policy treats privately run medical institutions. This page sets out both and names no hospital. It does not rate, rank or recommend any institution.

How the statistics define private hospitals

The bulletin's notes define a private hospital as any hospital other than a public hospital. They list joint-venture, shareholding cooperative, private, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan invested, and foreign-invested hospitals as included. They define a public hospital as one whose economic type is state-owned or collectively owned.

What the bulletin counts

The bulletin's table of hospitals by ownership gives these figures:

Hospital group	Institutions	Beds
All hospitals	38710	8119877
Private hospitals	26956	2514049

The bulletin adds these shares:

Private hospitals hold 31.0 percent of hospital beds.
Private hospitals had 7.3亿 diagnosis and treatment visits (诊疗人次), which is 16.3 percent of all hospital visits.
Private hospitals had 4502.4万 admissions (入院人次), which is 17.7 percent of all hospital admissions.

In these figures, 亿 and 万 are the Chinese units for one hundred million and ten thousand.

What the national opinions say

The opinions were issued with notice 国卫医发〔2019〕42号. They call these institutions an important part of China's medical and health service system.

Space and support

The opinions say the number and scale of public hospitals should be strictly controlled, to leave room for privately run institutions. They say local governments adding or adjusting medical and health resources should first consider having private operators set up or run the institutions. Where private operators set up non-profit institutions in under-resourced areas, or in short-supply specialties such as rehabilitation, nursing and mental health, local governments may give them site or rent subsidies and other support on the same basis as public institutions.

Tax

For-profit privately run institutions, including small ones such as clinics, may enjoy the tax policy for small and micro enterprises under the relevant rules. Privately run medical institutions may also apply for recognition as high-tech enterprises under the rules.

Approval, grading and planning

The opinions say the health administration should accept requests from privately run institutions to join the hospital grade review and give the review result within 3 months. They also say the government sets no limit on the total number or spatial layout of privately run medical institutions in an area. Class B large medical equipment is to be configured by notification and commitment, and the bed-size requirement is abolished.

A clinic filing pilot

The opinions set a pilot of filing management for clinics in 10 cities during 2019 and 2020: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xi'an.

Working with public hospitals

The opinions say privately run institutions may join medical consortia, and that those with strong comprehensive or specialty strength may lead a consortium. They support privately run institutions in taking on rehabilitation, nursing and hospice care that tertiary public hospitals refer downward.

Insurance designation

The opinions say any lawfully established medical institution may apply for designation under basic medical insurance and cross-provincial direct settlement. The host entity, nature of operation, size and grade must not be a precondition for designation. A privately run institution can apply for designation after 3 months of formal operation, and the designation assessment is to be finished within 3 months.

Supervision

The opinions apply the principles that whoever approves also regulates, and that whoever is in charge also regulates, together with the "double random, one open" principle. Health administrations are to supervise privately run institutions and improve complaint and reporting platforms.

What this page did not establish

The bulletin figures are national figures. Provincial and city counts of private hospitals were not collected here.
Later changes or replacements of the opinions were not checked.
No hospital was named, and no hospital's ownership, level or licence was checked.
Whether a particular hospital is for-profit or non-profit depends on facts that these sources do not give.

Questions people ask

What counts as a private hospital in China's national statistics?

The bulletin counts as private every hospital other than a public one, and it lists the kinds of hospital included.

Can private hospitals join the national hospital grade review?

The opinions support and encourage privately run institutions to take part in the hospital grade review.

Do the sources rank private hospitals?

The bulletin and the opinions count institutions and set policy. They do not rank hospitals, and this page does not either.

Sources

Each source above was read on the date shown. This page is an unofficial summary of general administrative information. It is not published by the bodies named above, and it is not medical advice. If it differs from the official pages, the official pages prevail, and rules and figures may change after the check date.