Reforming the governance of Chinese hospitals: exploring the relevance of the networked governance approach

Inspired by the networked governance approach and its introduction of user-centred collaborative innovations, recently heralded in much of the western world, this paper discusses the relevance of the approach for reforming the governance of Chinese hospitals. This paper presents the changes in the governance of Chinese hospitals initiated in 2009 and shows that these reforms will not solve the current governance problems. The paper explains that, without changing the financial structure of the hospitals, patient involvement in creating reforms (i.e., collaborative innovations) will be unlikely to yield the required improvements. The paper also suggests that patients can nevertheless play an active role in identifying problems. The paper concludes that the relevance of the networked governance approach is constrained by the financial system used for governing Chinese hospitals.