With assistance from Singapore,the levels of healthcare advance
A program sponsored by the Pudong New Area and the Singapore Consulate in Shanghai has paved the way for advanced healthcare procedures and facilities in the city’s pilot Free Trade Zone.
Dai Yueming, vice general manager of the Shanghai International Medical Zone Group Co, was among the first group of people to participate in the cooperative program back in 2011. He spent three months in Singapore, visiting healthcare facilities and learning about the medical system on the island city-state.
“The field trip was no business boondoggle,” said Dai. “The program was tightly designed to produce results.”
What he learned helped Dai in his current job, he said. He is in charge of investment and assets management for the Shanghai International Medical Zone, which is located in the Zhangjiang bonded area of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.
After he earned a doctoral degree in management at Fudan University and before his current job, Dai was a researcher at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, a futures trader in Beijing and a venture capitalist for an American firm.
Recalling his experience in Singapore, Dai said he was “shocked” by the maturity of Singapore’s medical industry. He praised the city-state’s farsightedness in designing healthcare industry parks and emphasizing the importance of “people-oriented” services.
“Sometimes, management is not about money, but about perceptions,” Dai said.
In a hospital owned by the Raffles Medical Group, Singapore’s largest private medical services provider, Dai witnessed how a nurse helped patients complete registration, see a doctor, get a prescription and pay their bill, all in one smooth process.
That was in contrast to China, where sick people often have to go from one department to another, up and down stairs, to go through each step in seeking medical care.
The world’s top five medical companies all have advanced research and development facilities in Singapore, the newest medicines are manufactured in what is an established industry value chain. “That is the goal set for our international medical zone,” Dai said, impressed by the willingness of Singaporeans to share their knowledge and experience.
During his stay, Dai worked at the Raffles Medical Group and visited a dozen hospitals, both state-owned and private. He held discussion with top medical practitioners and the health authorities, and listened to speeches from the likes of former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.
He now wants to make the medical zone in Pudong more international, more ecological and, above all, more people-oriented.
Steps are underway to form alliances with foreign academic institutions, construct modern hospitals and create an industry chain. Garden installations are also important to make the area a welcoming one for visitors, he said.
“My experience in Singapore teaches me small changes can make a huge difference, but you have to take action to accomplish that,” Dai said.
The annual exchange program was suspended for one year in 2013, when China was reassessing field trips as part of a nationwide crackdown on extravagance and waste. However, it was subsequently revived.
“It would be a shame to lose a program as valuable as this,” Dai said. “It means too much for Pudong. Development of the Free Trade Zone has been fast in the past three year, but there is still much we can learn from practices in Singapore.”
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