| City | Shenzhen |
|---|---|
| Tier | Public tertiary hospital (university-managed) |
| International department | Yes |
| Known for | General practice and family medicine, Cardiovascular medicine, Cross-border and international patient services |
| Cost notes | Publishes fixed package prices publicly — 67 surgical disease groups as of the June 2025 price table — a transparency practice almost unique among mainland public hospitals. |
Overview
The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH, 香港大学深圳医院) is a public hospital in Futian district, Shenzhen, opened in 2012 with Shenzhen government investment and management arrangements imported from the University of Hong Kong, on a scale of roughly 2,000 beds. Its official site runs in full English alongside Chinese — a signal of who it expects to serve.
Two things make this hospital unusual, and both are well documented. The first is price transparency: since January 2016 it has operated a package pricing system (打包收费) — fixed, all-inclusive prices for defined procedures, a structure borrowed from Hong Kong practice and a first for a mainland public hospital system where itemised billing is the norm. It began with ten surgical procedures (SCMP reported the launch, citing a gallbladder removal at a fixed ¥11,000) and the hospital still publishes the full schedule on its own site — currently a 67-surgical-disease package price table, updated June 2025. Shenzhen’s health commission credits the model with measurable effects, reporting average outpatient costs down 8% and per-visit inpatient costs down 24% after the reforms were introduced.
The second is cross-border care. HKU-SZH is the mainland hospital most integrated with the Hong Kong system: it participates in the Healthcare Voucher pilot allowing eligible Hong Kong elderly to use vouchers in Shenzhen, and under the May 2023 Pilot Scheme for Supporting Patients Hong Kong Hospital Authority patients in the Greater Bay Area attend designated clinics there at an RMB100 consultation fee. For US and UK readers the relevance is different: this is one of the few mainland public hospitals whose pricing you can read in English, in advance, before you walk in — a rarity even among China’s international departments.
Our library includes several Shenzhen hospital videos — a walk-in brain MRI, minor surgery at a public hospital and an unplanned admission — which show the same city’s hospital system from the patient side, though none was filmed specifically at HKU-SZH. For how package pricing compares with Western out-of-pocket rates, see the cost comparisons.