NHC held a press release announcing the approval of 76 national regional medical centers by 2022

In some areas with weak medical resources in China, it is difficult for the public to obtain quality medical services and have to seek treatment across provinces and regions, which is a heavy economic and time burden.

On April 13, 2023, the National Health Commission held a press conference introducing the work process of expanding quality medical resources and a balanced regional layout.

As reported, up to now, 13 national medical centers in the professional and children's categories have been set up. 76 national regional medical center construction projects have also been approved in four batches in areas with weak medical resources.

"In 2022, 372 international and domestic firsts or leading technologies have been carried out. Since the implementation of the project, more than 1,400 diagnostic and treatment technologies have been levelled to provinces with weak medical resources, filling more than 300 medical technology gaps." Li Dachuan, Deputy Director General of the Medical Department of NHC, said.

In October 2021, the NHC issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for National Clinical Specialty Capacity Building", which will implement a key clinical specialties project during the 14th Five-Year Plan. 

At the national level, a total of no less than 750 national key clinical specialty construction projects will be supported in each province. At the provincial level, the 31 provinces will support no less than 5,000 provincial key clinical specialty construction projects. At the municipal (county) level, 31 provinces have provided cumulative support for at least 10,000 municipal and county-level clinical specialty capacity building projects.

By 2022, the central government has invested a total of RMB 2.54 billion to support 508 national key clinical specialty construction projects across the country. At the same time, local government have also actively invested a total of more than 7 billion yuan to support 4,652 provincial key clinical specialty construction projects and 10,631 municipal (county) level key clinical specialty construction projects.

This growth presents a significant opportunity for the in vitro diagnostic industry. In a previous interview with Mr. Haibo Song, Chairman of CAIVD and Founder of CACLP, he responded to the question "How do you see the trends of future development?" as follows:

“Healthcare institutions and facilities are growing quickly. We have first tier and second tier cities, but we have also fourth tier, fifth tier, sixth tier… So the investment in the infrastructure, construction and building means there will be a lot of new facilities, hospitals and healthcare institutions in the coming years.”

As more healthcare institutions are established, there will be an increased demand for diagnostic tests and technologies to support the diagnosis and treatment of patients. This creates a favorable market for the development and adoption of innovative diagnostic products and solutions.