The municipal government of Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province, held a news conference on Oct 29 to talk about the construction of 13 key hospital projects and regional medical centers in the city.

At present, the hospital projects are progressing steadily and civil construction will be completed before the end of 2022.

The projects cover a combined 2,111.82 mu (140.79 hectares) of land, with total floorspace of 3.2 million square meters for medical and healthcare buildings.

They will cost 27.53 billion yuan ($4.12 billion) and provide 16,775 new hospital beds.

Making the fastest progress, the Xixian New Area hospital of Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital is being funded and constructed by Qinhan New City. At the end of this month, the main structure had been capped and secondary structural work had begun.

The south hospital of the Xi'an Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine is being built by Xi'an and Chang'an district as a 3A-level hospital -- integrating medical care, health care and elderly care services. After completion, it will resolve the shortage of high-quality Chinese medicine medical resources in Chang’an district.

The city plans to establish 12 national regional medical centers for children, orthopedics, oncology, mental health, neurology, respiratory and infectious diseases. This will lead to an overall improvement of regional medical, prevention and health services.

On Aug 31, the National Health Commission issued a Notice on the Establishment of the National Children's Regional Medical Center, clarifying the establishment of the National Children's Regional Medical Center in Northwest China, with the Xi'an Children's Hospital as the main body.

It is the first national regional medical center approved by the county in Northwest China.

Moving forwards, the city will strengthen its funding and infrastructure investment, advanced management system reforms and promote research and applications for cutting-edge medical technology, in an effort to accelerate the construction of the remaining 11 regional medical centers and to create regional medical and health highlands.