China's special health zone sees more visitors: newspaper

BEIJING - A special medical zone in southern China's island province of Hainan, which provides world-class medical tourism services to domestic and international patients, has experienced an increase in visitors, reported China Daily on Monday.

In the first two months of 2023, the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, China's first and currently only special medical zone, received more than 34,000 visitors, up over 37 percent year-on-year, according to the news report.

Established in 2013, the zone has set up an independent regulatory system to optimize the approval, customs clearance, use and supervision of imported medical devices and drugs, and introduced its own insurance system to fill the gap in insurance for imported medicines, the newspaper said.

"Lecheng is able to make use of medical devices and drugs licensed abroad but not yet in China, providing patients with advanced international-standard diagnosis and treatment," Yan Lukai, an official with the zone's administration, was quoted as saying.

To date, the zone has introduced some 300 urgently needed medical devices and drugs, and established relations with nearly 80 pharmaceutical device and drug manufacturers in 18 countries, the news report noted.