INTEGRATED real estate and healthcare player Perennial Holdings will open and operate China’s first wholly foreign-owned hospital in Tianjin, the group announced on Monday (Dec 16).
The multi-year 500-bed Tianjin General Hospital has passed a hospital inspection by the Tianjin Municipal Health Commission and obtained a medical institution license.
This comes as China announced in November that it would allow the establishment of wholly owned foreign hospitals in nine regions, aiming to diversify 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 use an easy access co-medical site 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 Chairman and CEO of Perennial, said: “Our unique access-friendly co-medical space concept for doctors and medical groups with different partnership models, allows us to embrace many medical professionals and build a comprehensive and sustainable ecosystem to promote the growth of our healthcare business in China.”
The hospital will also have a medical specialist team for several disciplines, including oncology, orthopedics and ophthalmology.
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Said Pua: “Perennial General Hospital Tianjin will pave the way to attract more foreign patients seeking private medical treatment in Tianjin, thereby raising the international standing of the country’s medical industry and driving the growth of Tianjin’s medical tourism industry.”
Perennial’s new hospital is part of the medical cluster at Perennial International Healthcare and Business City in Tianjin, which is located near the Tianjin South High-Speed Railway station.
Perennial in September announced that the S$1 billion business city had completed construction of its medical cluster, comprising 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 elderly care component, which has been operational since June 2024. The project’s four-hotel hospitality cluster 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 of 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 improved business environment.
Specific conditions and procedures will also be established for the establishment of these wholly owned foreign hospitals.
For example, the hospitals must be general hospitals, specialist hospitals or higher level rehabilitation hospitals; they must connect to the local regulatory platform for medical services; and must employ not less than 50 percent of the hospital’s management and medical technical staff from China.
Previously, China only allowed hospitals that were jointly funded by Chinese and foreign governments. Other Southeast 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, increases the confidence of investors interested in China’s healthcare field, and drives foreign investment and foreign-local cooperation in view of China’s growth prospects.”
