Business delegation to China focuses on talking with potential partners

The healthcare expertise of the United Kingdom can help China develop a stronger economy, said Nathanael Ming-Yan Wei, the only active Chinese peer in Britain's House of Lords.

"If we can leverage the UK's expertise in China and help China to achieve affordable healthcare," Wei said, "then you can invest the money that people otherwise spend on health emergencies."

As the UK's National Healthcare Service is one of the most respected universal coverage systems in the world, many healthcare companies from the region see an opportunity to share their expertise abroad, and China is an obvious market.

To help cement such ties, Wei is leading a delegation of about 10 businesses to visit Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Changzhou, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Huai'an in Jiangsu province during the first two weeks of April.

He said the trip will focus on helping the companies initiate talks with potential Chinese partners, as well as learn more about opportunities in China, which can then be shared with other companies in the UK.

One business in the delegation is International Hospital Group, a healthcare services company that works closely with the NHS. And a notable figure in the delegation is Maggie Pearson, dean of the University of Salford's College of Health and Social Care.

Wei said many of the businesses in his delegation have a strong link with Manchester, the famous industrial city in the English Midlands, now home to a major healthcare sector.

In fact, many Manchester healthcare groups already have a connection with China. An example is the Peking-Manchester Center for Genomic Medicine, a newly launched research center formed through a partnership between the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre and Peking University Health Science Center.

This new center focuses on joint research in three areas: rare diseases, cancer genetics and a clinical trials facility.

MAHSC's involvement is being led by the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine at St Mary's Hospital, which has a world-class research facility for inherited diseases and also delivers services to families with inherited disorders.

William Newman, director of the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine, said discussions initiated two years ago when a Chinese delegation visited St Mary's Hospital.

The Chinese researchers were very impressed with the research program, facility and standard of clinical care, and the two sides started working on joint research projects and an exchange of PhD students to gain experience in each other's universities.

Wei hailed the Peking-Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine as a win-win partnership, because the Chinese partner will learn expertise and the UK partner can advance its knowledge through access to a wider sampling of patients in China.

Wei said he sees three main areas of cooperative opportunities: elderly care, the design and management of hospitals and other facilities, and designing a healthcare system.

For example, the UK's knowledge in creating elderly care homes, training nurses and creating leisure activities management in these facilities will be useful in China as the nation's population ages, Wei said.

The UK's design of hospitals and other facilities, with emphasis on sustainability, also will help China as it builds more hospitals. In addition, the UK's system of encouraging patients to visit general practitioners before having to turn to specialists can be used in China to reduce overcrowding at big hospitals, Wei said.

The key to such knowledge transfer is in encouraging companies like the International Hospital Group to venture into China as an intermediary between the UK's public healthcare system and Chinese public and private healthcare providers.

This is because such companies are commercially driven and are willing to make investment and take financial risks, he said.

The child of Hong Kong immigrants, Wei was born and grew up in the UK. Since joining Britain's House of Lords in 2010, he has actively contributed to building business links between the two countries.

"As a Chinese person, it makes me feel excited to be able to help China," he said.

cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily USA 04/02/2014 page16)