Beijing (People's Daily) - Public hospitals in Beijing will encourage more public participation in management and decision-making and also plan to lure talent overseas, according to a recent policy to boost medical services in China’s capital city. 

The Beijing Tiantan Hospital (Photos: VCG)

The decision was announced by the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning on Tuesday. 

Beijing’s public hospitals would be the nation’s first with a foreign hospital director. 

Beijing public hospitals will expand the scope of selecting and appointing. Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning Deputy Director Zhong Dongbo said Beijing public hospitals are likely to have a foreign director in the future. 

The plan would establish a public participation committee under the leadership of the Party Committee in public hospitals. The general public will be able to participate in hospital decision-making and management. Its members are mainly composed of lawmakers, political advisers, professionals with expertise in hospital management, and resident representatives. 

In addition, Beijing would also strictly control the scale of special needs services. 

The government should strengthen the supervision of hospitals by controlling the proportion of special needs services no more than 10 percent in public hospitals, said the plan. 

Special needs services are a higher standard of paid medical services. The services have two basic characteristics: First, patients have special requirements for medical treatment, nursing; and second, patients voluntarily pay higher medical service fees.