Improved regulations to facilitate medicine, equipment imports to Guangdong

A statement from the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress on Wednesday detailed new regulations aimed at making it easier to import medicine and medical equipment from Hong Kong and Macao to cities in Guangdong. The changes will come into effect in December.

The regulations propose to create rules to ensure that important medicines and equipment from Hong Kong and Macao are managed consistently, establish systems to quickly alert, recall, and track these items when needed, and clarify how different departments will regulate them.

More changes include improving the relief system and introducing insurance mechanisms to ease the financial burden on patients in urgent need of drugs and equipment. Insurance institutions will be incentivized to develop plans that cover the drugs and equipment with optimized compensation procedures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of patients.

The rules also promote adding crucial medicines and equipment from Hong Kong and Macao to general health insurance plans and endorse using personal accounts from basic medical insurance to buy this kind of health insurance.

As of the end of June, Guangdong has approved 19 medical institutions to import medicine and medical devices and instruments from Hong Kong and Macao.

The statement said the variety of imported medicines, devices, and instruments has been expanded to 67 (including 34 drugs and 33 medical devices), benefiting more than 7,000 patients and effectively meeting the urgent clinical needs of the public for medication and equipment.

Meanwhile, the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress also passed regulations to lower the thresholds for entrepreneurship and employment for Hong Kong and Macao residents looking to find success in the nine GBA cities in Guangdong province.