Breaking the monopoly of state-owned hospitals in China, Beijing's first-ever private mental health clinic has been inaugurated here with the Communist giant opening up its medical sector as part of new reforms.
The clinic in downtown Beijing which was opened yesterday is the first private mental health medical institution approved by the health authorities, the Beijing Daily reported today.
At present there are a number of psychological counselling agencies in the city that only provide counselling services but not medical treatment.
The clinic is also China's first mental health clinic to combine online and in-person services, the report said.
Fifteen mental health experts from major Beijing hospitals will offer medical services at the clinic as part of a move to encourage doctors to serve patients in multiple hospitals and clinics.
China had 4.3 million severe mentally ill patients on official record at the end of last year.
A 2015-2020 plan for mental health work set a goal to manage the conditions of more than 80 per cent of people with severe mental illnesses by 2020, with treatment covering at least 80 per cent of schizophrenia cases.
To address a grave lack of mental health professionals, the plan encourages health institutes to set up psychiatric clinics and strengthen staff training, raising the projected number of doctors specialising in mental disorders to 40,000 by 2020.
