INTEGRATED real estate and healthcare player Perennial Holdings will open and operate China’s first entirely foreign-owned hospital in Tianjin, the group announced on Monday (Dec 16).
The 500-bed Perennial General Hospital Tianjin has passed a hospital inspection by Tianjin’s Municipal Health Commission and obtained a medical institution practice license.
This comes as China in November announced it would allow the establishment of wholly owned foreign hospitals in nine regions, aimed at diversifying medical services for locals and foreigners living in the country.
Perennial General Hospital Tianjin, which cost 1 billion renminbi (S$185.3 million) to develop and equip, will utilise an asset-light co-medical space for doctors and medical groups, allowing doctors to use shared facilities provided by Perennial. These facilities include an advanced operating theatre, diagnostic imaging and a clinical laboratory.
Pua Seck Guan, executive chair and chief executive of Perennial, said: “Our unique asset-light co-medical space concept for doctors and medical groups with different partnership models, allows us to embrace many medical professionals and build an extensive and sustainable ecosystem to further the growth of our healthcare business in China.”
The hospital will also have a specialist medical team for several disciplines, including oncology, orthopedics and ophthalmology.
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Said Pua: “Perennial General Hospital Tianjin will pave the way to draw more foreign patients seeking private medical treatments in Tianjin, thereby raising the country’s medical industry’s international standing and driving the growth of Tianjin’s medical tourism industry.”
Perennial’s new hospital is part of the medical cluster at the Perennial International Healthcare and Business City in Tianjin, located close to the Tianjin South High-Speed Railway station.
Perennial in September announced the S$1 billion business city had completed the construction of its medical cluster, which comprises three hospitals with over 1,000 beds across four hospitals – Perennial General Hospital Tianjin, secondary rehabilitation hospital Perennial Rehabilitation Hospital Tianjin and tertiary brain hospital Eber Perennial Brain Hospital.
A fourth hospital, the 300-bed Perennial Nursing Hospital Tianjin, is part of the development’s eldercare component, which has been in operation since June 2024. The project’s hospitality cluster with four hotels opened in September.
China’s new healthcare policy
Perennial’s wholly owned hospital comes after China said it would allow foreign entities to own hospitals in nine regions in China.
China’s National Health Commission said these regions – Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hainan – will import high-level medical resources, enrich domestic medical services and see an enhanced business environment.
Specific conditions and procedures will also be laid out for the establishment of these wholly owned foreign hospitals.
For example, the hospitals have to be general, speciality or rehabilitation hospitals at a tertiary level; they must connect to the local medical service regulatory platform; and must employ no less than 50 per cent of the hospital’s management and medical technically staff from China.
Previously, China only allowed hospitals jointly funded by Chinese and foreign agencies. Other South-east Asian players with hospitals in China include Singapore’s Raffles Medical and Malaysia’s IHH Healthcare.
On this move, Perennial’s Pua said: “This forward-looking policy sends a strong positive signal to the international investment community, boosts confidence for investors keen on China’s healthcare space and drives foreign investments and foreign-local collaborations given the growth prospects of China.”
