Private businesses are encouraged to provide diversified medical services in a guideline recently issued by the State Council, in order to realize the target of completing a diversified, multilayered healthcare system by 2020.

According to the guideline, supervision and management of private medical institutions will be strengthened, and these institutions should enhance self-discipline in order to improve their credibility. Private medical institutions have become an important component of the health industry. According to statistics, the number of patients treated by private medical institutions accounted for 22 percent of the total number of patients in China in 2015.

In the meantime, the private medical sector has long been notorious for practices such as deceptive advertising, exaggeration of patients' sickness and overuse of medical tests for the purpose of profit. Such practices have seriously harmed patients' interests. They have occurred because some private hospitals recklessly pursue profits regardless of social ethics and the responsibilities to be shouldered by enterprises.

Benevolence to people in need should be the pursuit and foundation of all medical institutions, no matter whether they are private or public. Both private and public hospitals are at the forefront of China's ongoing medical reforms. In addition to grasping the opportunities provided by the government's favorable policies, private medical institutions should improve their ethics in order to gain trust and support from the public and achieve greater results in the new round of reform.

(This is an edited excerpt of an article published in Xinhua Daily Telegraph on May 25)