Only 29 Registered Foreign Doctors Work in the City


Now Shenzhen   |   August 31, 2021

A report of Shenzhen Economic Daily on August 22 has revealed the existing conditions of registered foreign doctors in Shenzhen. Only 29 registered foreign doctors work in the city while 28 of them are employed by private hospitals.

In Shenzhen there are more than 20,000 doctors while only 29 of them are registered foreign doctors and 81 are from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan areas. Moreover, most of these registered foreign doctors merely come to the city for short-term learns. The rate is really low. The population of Shenzhen is about 10.56 millions while approximate 30,000 are expats. Even if all the foreign doctors serve expats only, 1 doctor has to be responsible for about 3,000 expats.

Why the quantity of foreign doctors small is in such a big city? Language, salary and difficulty to gain working medical license could be the reasons.

It cannot say that knowing Chinese is essential to work in China. However, as a kind of service industry, doctor should at least know what their patients say and explain doctor’s suggestions to them. Translators, of course, can help sometimes, but also it is not easy to find a qualified translator in medical field. On the other hand, will Chinese patients have confidence enough to see a foreign doctor when they think they could not explain themselves clearly? As a result, foreign doctors’ main customers are expats. Zac Morse, an Australian dentist at Dental Bauhinia, said about 70% of her patients were westerners while 10% Japanese, 10% high-income Chinese who have lived abroad and 10% were local people.

The report referred that foreign doctors charged a lot more than Chinese doctors. It is one of reasons why most of them work for private hospitals. Zac charges RMB 500 for a regular treatment. Fariooz Puthlyapurayil Majandavida who works for C-Mer (Shenzhen) Dennis Lam Eye Hospital in Futian District charges RMB 300 per regular check.

According to some relevant policies, legal foreign doctor who is hired by local legal medical organization only can apply one year working medical license and need to renew it yearly. Although the official said it was easy to apply but still it adds an obstacle. At the same time, it is related with visa issue, another annoying document to apply in China.

Reference:

Shenzhen Daily: 29 foreign doctors registered in city

Shenzhen Economic Daily: 29 位外国医生在深圳执业开诊

Shenzhen Standard: Majority of Foreign Doctors Practice at Private Hospitals in Shenzhen

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