The First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University

Read the founding date carefully. The current institution dates from 1 March 2023, when Ningbo First Hospital (founded 1913) merged with the former Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University School of Medicine, the old Ningbo Third Hospital (founded 1951). Booking sites still list the old 宁波市第一医院 name with pre-2023 bed counts, and the hospital's own page title still carries it — but that is a legacy string, not a separate hospital, and a pre-2023 figure describes a different institution.

Its International Medical Department was established in 2012 (so it predates the merger and came across with it) and the hospital describes it as the first and largest international healthcare centre in Ningbo. What makes this an unusually completely published international department is not the claim but the detail: two named clinics with building, floor and room numbers, separate appointment lines, a mobile number, stated languages, stated opening hours, an email, a named director, and direct billing with roughly two dozen insurers. It has treated patients from more than 80 countries and regions.

The Ningbo municipal government has recognised it as an International Exchange Demonstration Base and a first-batch International Medical Service Demonstration Hospital.

It also runs a substantive centre portfolio: the China Chest Pain Center, the National Advanced Stroke Center, the China Atrial Fibrillation Center and a National Heart Failure Center demonstration unit, its clinical laboratory is ISO 15189-accredited, and it has three campuses with roughly 3,900 approved beds and 5,068 staff.

One discrepancy to know about: the hospital's own Chinese and English pages state 23 and 24 insurance partners respectively. We publish the range rather than a single number, because picking one would be inventing precision the hospital itself does not have.

Before you rely on this: The International Medical Department states that all of its medical services must be booked at least one day in advance, so there is no same-day or walk-in access at either the Yuehu or Waitan international clinic. It also states that patients holding international medical insurance must present both their passport and insurance card at the clinic visit, so the identity document has to be carried, not just the policy number.