Minister to lead health & social care delegation to China

Minister Ken Clarke leads a trade delegation to China today, to promote the UK’s health and social care sector.

The Minister without portfolio will spend five days in China with 50 other people from 39 companies, universities and training hospitals.

Clarke, a former Health Secretary, will meet with the Chinese Health Minister Li Bin. The two will host a conference on dementia.

This follows a pledge by the Prime Minister David Cameron to commit significant funding at the recent G8 health summit for research into the disease.

Clarke, who will visit Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Zhejiang and Shanghai, said: “Healthcare and life sciences are among the strongest sectors of the British economy and our standards are held in high regard overseas.

“As a country, we must play to our strengths if we are to continue to build a healthy, modern economy, and there can be no doubt that exports in this area will play an important part.

“From building a hospital to training the staff to building the IT and management systems, the UK has the expertise that China needs as it builds a healthcare system that is projected to be spending a trillion dollars every year by 2020”.