China's Hainan region is so pleasant, it has come to be known as the nation's equivalent of Hawaii.
Now, the country wants to use the area to lure patients who might otherwise leave China and travel abroad for their medical coverage.
Bloomberg reports, however, that Chinese officials face an uphill battle in turning this beachside oasis into a region festooned with hospitals, top-tier doctors and crucial drugs.
The impetus behind the campaign is the tremendous amount of Chinese citizens looking abroad for serious ailments such as cancer. China's medical infrastructure is bogged down by a drastically slow approval process when it comes to drugs and treatment.
And, as the report points out, well-regarded physicians are at a premium in China. Those in need of care often look to nearby Japan or make the trek all the way to the United States for treatment. Bloomberg points to a figure supplied by travel website Ctrip.com that states half a million citizens left China in search of medical care in 2016.
Officials hoped to tweak Hainan's focus to incorporate a heavy emphasis on medical tourism, thereby attracting what could presumably be millions of patients over the course of a few years.
However, there are major issues that could turn Hainan into what Bloomberg refers to as another Chinese Ghost Town-an area designed by officials for a specific purpose that goes grossly underutilized.
The massive project started back in 2013 and is getting a continued cash infusion. The report states there are currently 27 projects in the works totaling a commitment of $3.3 billion. The hospitals and clinics that are established and planned for the future are wide-ranging, offering everything from cancer treatment to plastic surgery.
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China Daily, an outlet run by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, is already touting the possibilities. A recent article calls Hainan "an emerging medical tourism hot spot," and features a Russian family who came to the area for the mother's back pain.
The mother, Svetlana Shipetko, explains about the treatment she received at Sanya Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine: "It is great. No pills, no injections, but I feel much better."
In this case, the treatment is explained as a form of acupuncture, but the best part for patients is they are also in a relative paradise with nearby beaches in which to sunbathe, frolic and heal.
Chen Bo, an associate partner at consultancy McKinsey & Co., explains to Bloomberg about one of the major obstacles for the area: "Building health-care capabilities there will require attracting excellent talent to work and live in the pilot zone, and good doctors are already badly needed in China's major cities."
Getting doctors to work and live in the area is one thing. It's another to incentivize the project enough to garner top-tier talent across various disciplines. But even if physicians begin showing up, Chinese drug approval across the country may loosen well before Hainan reaches its potential.
Bloomberg explains that, at the moment, getting a drug approved that might otherwise be used in other parts of the world is egregiously slow and plodding.
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Help is on the way as the government seeks to improve the process, but that would represent a potential death knell to Hainan progress. Chen continues, explaining that this medical tourism hot spot would be obsolete if drugs were accessible elsewhere in China:
"It was very appealing a few years back when approval of innovative drugs was relatively slow, but if the pilot zone can't build full-fledged medical teams and business models in the next two to three years, its attractiveness will be greatly weakened."
China Daily had previously reported on the pilot area and its governmental allowances: "It enjoys nine preferential polices, including special permission for medical talent, technology, devices and drugs, and an allowance for entrance of foreign capital and international communications."
China certainly believes it has the market to make Hainan flourish as a destination for medical tourism, not only for its own citizens but for those coming from other countries.
As with anything this daunting, there are bound to be major issues that arise to deter the progress. The most pressing is whether officials have started a much-needed program far too late in the game.
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