Hospitals in Shanghai for International Patients

Seeing a doctor in Shanghai as a foreigner

The Shanghai municipal government publishes an English guide to using the city’s hospitals. In outline: you register (guahao) at the admission desk and pay a registration fee, wait for your number, see the doctor, then pay for any prescriptions or tests before you receive them. For a hospital stay or surgery, the guide says patients need to pay the expected costs in advance. Bring your passport — it is the identity document used for registration — and expect to be issued a hospital card on your first visit.

Appointments at public hospitals can be made through the city’s Suishenban app, although the government’s own guide notes that you may need some basic Chinese. This is one reason many international patients use a hospital’s international medical department instead, where booking is handled separately.

What is changing

At the end of 2024 the Shanghai government issued measures to develop international medical services. They call for standardised international medical departments in public hospitals, foreign-language versions of the city’s appointment platforms, more payment channels (RMB cash, domestic and foreign bank cards, mobile payment and direct insurance billing), multilingual medical documents, and easier exit-entry paperwork for foreign patients. Huashan Hospital states that in 2024 it was named one of Shanghai’s pilot public hospitals for international medical tourism.

These are policy goals, and delivery varies by hospital. Check each profile for what a hospital has actually confirmed.

Choosing between campuses

Large Shanghai hospitals operate several campuses, sometimes on opposite sides of the Huangpu River. The international department may be on only one of them, so confirm the campus and building when you book.