UK Company Invests in Chinese Healthcare

Circle Holdings has joined with Chinese investors to develop and manage up to 10 medical clinics in China.

Doctors will be providing a range of secondary healthcare services in China. [Photo: VCG]

The company has formed a joint venture to do this within the next five years. Operating with other investors such as China Taiping, China’s third largest insurer with 5.5m private medical clients, the state owned Xinxing Cathay International Development Group, and Huzhiu Yongxing Investment Company.

The group of investors have committed £22m to the project, which is part of a government initiative to move treatment away from hospitals, to care by family doctors and local clinics. It will also boost the market and increase urbanisation for the 1.4bn population.

Circle Holdings, is the UK private healthcare company best known for its takeover of Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridgeshire, the first NHS hospital to be managed by a private company.

The move by Circle shows the desire of Western healthcare to expand into China. With plans to open their first healthcare clinic in Shanghai in 2017, it will offer a range of services including GP, outpatient, diagnostic, and treatment services aimed at patients who can afford to take out membership. There will also be a pay as you go option.

Steve Melton, CEO of  Circle, said he hoped they would be able to press forward with other openings quickly once the infrastructure has been put in place. He said that the deal showed that the UK’s “horizons remain global in the wake of the decision to leave the European Union”.

The clinic in Shanghai will provide patients access to specialist and secondary care services at the state run Ruijin Hospital, and in a move supported by the British government, Circle will provide the hospital with opportunities in the UK.