First HK medical school to be set up in Shenzhen
The first ever Hong Kong-style medical school and a brand-new affiliated teaching hospital will be set up in Shenzhen due to increasing demand for high-quality medical services in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The plan, initiated by the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Shenzhen branch, aims at improving medical services in the Bay Area to international levels at a time of a growing aging population in its member cities.
CUHK Vice-Chancellor Rocky Tuan Sung-chi said on Monday the medical school and its affiliated hospital would be set up in Longgang district, where the Shenzhen campus is located. It will offer “world-class” lessons and services to meet rising demand for medical services in the 11-city cluster.
Noting that the plan is still at a very early stage of conception, Tuan hopes the two institutions could be put to use in five years.
It is expected that the course will be carried out in English and the curriculum will be designed in accordance with the CUHK medical school in Hong Kong.
In January, Shenzhen government and CUHK Shenzhen signed an agreement to establish the medical school and its affiliated hospital.
Speaking to an audience at the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Health Cooperation Conference on Monday in Shenzhen, President of CUHK Shenzhen Xu Yangsheng revealed that the planned medical faculty will offer undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD degrees with 17 programs in various areas. These include clinical medicine, pediatrics, basic medicine, and bioinformatics.
Besides the brand-new teaching hospital, the medical school will include two local hospitals as affiliated hospitals — providing no less than 5,000 beds.
Aiming to enhance the Bay Area’s medical services, Tuan estimates that most of the students will be mainlanders — who are more likely to seek development opportunities in the Bay Area.
The Bay Area’s outline development plan, released earlier, envisions a deeper cooperation in medicine and healthcare in the area.