Chinese hospital public-private partnership: Three case studies in Guangdong Province

Abstract

In debates on the current reform of China’s public hospitals, there are substantial disagreements between the government group and the market group. The former holds that since medical services can be considered as public products to some extent, they must be provided by the government. On the contrary, the latter believes that problems like the difficulty and high cost of getting medical treatment lie in deficiency of marketization. It is held in this research that both the government and the market play important roles in the reform of public hospitals and that the fundamental solution to the problems is to give full play to both of them. The government should play its natural role of administration, safeguardingsocial equity and justice and the market should play its basic role in allocating resources. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is an innovative model that integrates public and private resources. In this model, long-term partnership between public/government entities and private/business entities as well as other non-governmental organizations is established so as to give full play to the comparative advantages of both the government and the market. PPP has become a relatively ideal model of providing medical services.

Nos debates, em curso, sobre a reforma dos Hospitais públicos Chineses, existem grandes desacordos entre o grupo “governamental” e o grupo “mercado”. Os primeiros argumentam que uma vez que os cuidados médicos podem ser considerados como bens públicos, devem ser da responsabilidade do governo. Os defensores do mercado defendem que problemas como a dificuldade e o alto custo em obter tratamento médico residem na falta de “mercado”. Nesta tese defendemos que quer o governo quer o mercado têm umpapel importante na reforma dos hospitais públicos e que a solução para os problemas existentes passa pela participação de ambos. O governo deve exercer o seu papel natural de administração, salvaguardando a igualdade e a justiça social e o mercado deve desempenhar o seu papel de alocador dos recursos. As Parcerias Público Privadas (PPP) constituem um modelo inovador que juntam recursos públicos e privados. Neste modelo, as parcerias de longo prazo entre entidades públicas e entidades privadas, assim como com outras entidades não governamentais, permitem juntar o que o mercado e o governo têm de bom. As PPP tornaram-se um bom modelo para a oferta de serviços médicos.