The China-australia
story
&
Bringing them together
The gaps in Chinese health care (The China Story) and Australia's capabilities (The Australian Story) formed a unique opportunity for current Chinese and Australian health care providers. Creating synergy between the two partners creates significant and mutual advantages for both. The areas where both partners can create meaningful impact are direct operations and advisory services, and training.
The China Story
The Chinese health care system has come a long way since the health care reform of the 1990's. Much of the focus had been on the tertiary and acute care sector, which had seen tremendous progress. In recent times, improving the aged care sector has been made a top national priority.
The Chinese health sector as whole is facing a number of key shifts which will shape its future and all the stakeholders within:
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an ageing population and a never seen before demographic shift, which created a 4-2-1 challenge for all families
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an increasingly health literate and sophisticated consumers and families
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a shallow talent pool of high quality care providers and managers to deliver superior care to meet the needs of consumers and families
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a changing political landscape that is heavily encouraging cross-national collaboration.
 By 2015, there were ~220 million people >60 y.o. (~10.5% of the total population) and 138 million > 65 y.o. living in China. This has created a 4-2-1 problem where a young couple is forced to take care of 4 parents and 1 or 2 child. Desperately seeking high quality care, financial constrain is a thing of the past. The elderly group's income alone reached RMB400 billion in 2014 (~AUD80 billion) and is expected to increase to RMB1 trillion (~AUD200 billion) by 2020. |  The consumers and their families are becoming more sophisticated in recent times as their standard of living continues to improve, and their access innovative technology and worldwide travel is becoming easier. |  Despite heavy infrastructure and hardware investments in the health sector, the depth and breadth of the health care professional and management talent pool are limited. The sector competes with other rewarding sectors such as finance and technology for top talent. This is particularly pronounced in more recently developed areas of health care such as aged care. |
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 The Chinese government is investing heavily in the health sector with a recent heavy focus on ageing. All levels of governments have already introduced numerous policies to establish quality ageing services in China, particularly regarding partnerships with foreign partners. According to Austrade, China “encourages private aged care service providers as the key to develop a strong aged care industry”. Aged care is also a key component in the China-Australia FTA. |
The aged care sector in China
Currently there is a desperate under supply of high quality aged care services in China. Despite heavy investment into tertiary health care, the state of of the Chinese aged care sector is still very much at its infancy. The most of aged care facilities are yet to develop effective and efficient operational and management mechanism, such as quality and risk control, continuous improvement, operating standards and competencies, training and development... to just name a few.
The service providers who do provide a reasonable quality of service have been very limited in their service offerings. The services barely address residents’ minimal daily activity and health care requirements, without any additional focus on their lifestyle needs. There has also been currently also a lack of a person centered care approach.
We possess the know-how and partnerships in successfully developing and executing health strategies between China and Australia.
The Australian story
Australia has been at the forefront of health care service delivery, management and innovation for many decades. While recognising that there are still room for improvement (just like any other country), it ranked sixth in the world in terms of healthcare efficiency in 2014, up from seventh in 2013, and rated seventh in life expectancy. It consistently ranks at the top of the Better Life Index (OECD) and it's healthcare system bring many benefits to the majority of the population, including a longer life expectancy and low infant mortality. There are three key factors which enabled Australia's achievement:
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an early and continuous investment into aged care
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continuous improvement
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stringent standards and accreditation process.
 Investment in aged care alone started early in the 1960’s and the continuous investment resulted in the federal spending reaching $15bn pa in the 1990’s, $21bn in 2000 and $32bn in 2010. The funding enabled continuous improvement and innovation programs in operations and service delivery. |  The constant push for innovation and improvement has lead to waves of reforms within the health care sector, including the introduction of ABF and NDIS, PBS reform, aged care reform... to just name a few. |  In line with continuous change and innovation, the quality of care was never neglected due to stringent national standards and accreditation processes. Focusing on aged care, accreditation ensures standards of care delivery and management in all aged care facilities meet the needs of all consumers, families and payers. |
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The australian providers and partners
Armed with decades of experience, knowledge and the label of "gold-standard" across so many facets in health and aged care, Australian providers and partners operates in a mature and sometimes heavy bureaucratic environment. China obviously presents as a golden opportunity for growth and innovation.
Despite China's allure as a market of endless opportunities, operating in China can be complex. Navigating the language, culture, health and political system requires a dedicated team of experts. The experts require experience and knowledge in health and aged care in both China and Australian systems, as well as the cross boarder/ cultural collaborations between the two countries.
We possess a successful track record in developing and executing complex cross boarder health projects between China and Australia. Learn more about our team here.
Bringing them together
The aforementioned gap in Chinese health care combined with Australia's immense capabilities combine to form a unique opportunity for current Chinese and Australian health care providers. There is a great deal that the Chinese providers can learn from Australia partners' decades of investment and experience, and the Australian partners can also gain significantly in the process. We see two pillars that will efficiently achieve exponential gains for both Chinese and Australian partners:
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operations and advisory
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training
Operations and advisory
In order to become the gold standards of tomorrow, one must learn from the today's gold standards first. Better yet, partner up to create a better future together!
There is no better way to achieve this than by engaging a dedicated and knowledgeable team to help Australian providers to tailor their approaches in China and navigate the complex Chinese operating environment.
We leverage the synergy of our in-depth understanding of China and Australia, health and aged care, as well as our strong partnerships in both countries to tailor the best-in-class Australian practices for the Chinese partners and consumers. We will help with organisations in both China and Australia every step of the way to ensure its success and achieving its goal. Learn more about us here.
Training
The biggest asset in a health or aged care facilities is its people. The quality they embody and work they produce is the single most critical factor that will impact on the outcome of your consumers and organisation. Health professionals' salaries is also the single biggest expense item in any organisation. As such, training forms the best investment any organisation can make in order to retain quality staff and improve care.
With extensive training experience in health care across both countries, we work in partnership with Australian experts in operation, care delivery and management to deliver evidence based, practical and structured training for Chinese service delivery and management staff. We pride ourselves in being able to effectively adapt the best-in-class Australian and global training methods and content to meet Chinese organisation, staff and consumers' needs.
Please contact us below to see how we can help you.