Better Future

Overseas citizens in Beijing accounted for 0.6 percent of the city's population in 2009, while that ratio stood at 30 percent in London and 28.4 percent in New York.

Analysts feared that with Beijing progressing towards an even more internationalized metropolis and more foreigners flowing into the city, the current already bad situation concerning health care for foreigners could worsen.

Fang Laiying, head of the health bureau in Beijing, said that the capital city will surely form an all-around health care system that ensures universal access to basic medical services as well as providing multi-mode services to meet diversified needs of different groups, including foreigners.

Beijing's Chaoyang district would introduce high-end medical organizations targeting overseas citizens in its central business district (CBD) and foreign embassy areas, according to health authorities in the district.

The Institute for Minimally Invasive Medicine of Tongji University planned to establish a medical center in Chaoyang to provide "family doctors clinic" services, which would specially target foreigners in China.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2010)