Brian Siu (right), chief operations officer of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area market and executive director at New Frontier, explains the price gap between MRI scans in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
Medical services in Shenzhen look set to play a complementary role to Hong Kong's healthcare system, particularly in alleviating the burden of high costs and lengthy waiting lists, according to cross-border medical facility operators.
Postpartum rehabilitation service is one key service. Chinese traditional therapy advises women to take a month-long rest after giving birth, called “yuezi” in Chinese. Many moms in the mainland choose to spend the month in a recovery center that provides tailor-made services ranging from nutritious meals and babysitting to professional medical care and spa treatments.
Shenzhen United Family Hospital, located near Futian station on the Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail link, has also introduced a range of “cross-border medical services” to explore more opportunities for "northern-bound medical care"
“There are not many such facilities in Hong Kong and their cost is much higher than those in Shenzhen,” said Brian Siu, chief operations officer of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area market and executive director at New Frontier, a healthcare service provider.
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Siu introduced New Frontier’s Shenzhen United Family Hospital, which provides a package of services for pregnancy, labor and postpartum care at an affordable price. “In Hong Kong, it costs above HK$200,000 ($25,600) but our price is about half of that,” he added. The facility also features herbal medicine steam and dry spas, where the patient floats above a warm water bed without getting undressed or wet).
He said the hospital has received more than a dozen of Hong Kong mums after the full resumption of normal cross-border travel in February, and expects a significant growth in the future.
Moreover, cross-border 24-hour emergency healthcare service can also help ease the pressure of Hong Kong’s public hospitals’ urgent medical treatment service, said Antony Leung Kam-chung, chairman and co-founder of New Frontier Group. He is also Hong Kong’s former financial secretary.
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“Once a mother in Hong Kong took her child to our Shenzhen hospital in the night and it took about only 90 minutes to examine the child, prescribe medicine, and admit the patient to the hospital,” he recalled.
Zhou Xiaomei (center), executive general manager of Shenzhen United Family Hospital, introduces herbal medicine steam facilities for postpartum recovery. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
The hospital, located near Futian station on the Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail link, has also introduced a range of “cross-border medical services” to explore more opportunities for "northern-bound medical care." For example, an MRI scan costs about HK$6,000 to HK$8,000 in Hong Kong, and the waiting time is more than a year, but the Shenzhen hospital charges only 60 to 80 percent of the Hong Kong price, and the test can be conducted right away.
Leung stressed the quality is the same as that in Hong Kong. Moreover, Hong Kong doctors practicing in Shenzhen earn as much as they do while working in Hong Kong, he added.
