China has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of healthcare workers and facilities last year, a local report said.

The Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization’s Korea Bio-economy Research Center published the report titled, “Status of China’s Healthcare Market,” on Thursday

The number of sickbeds at Chinese healthcare institutions reached 7.9 million in 2017, up by 5.3 million from a year earlier. The number of sickbeds per 1,000 people rose to 5.72 in 2017 from 5.37 in 2016.

The workforce in the healthcare sector also surged. The number of healthcare workers amounted to 11.74 million in 2017, up by 576,000 from a year earlier.

By institution type, 59.4 percent of the healthcare employees worked at hospitals (6.9 million). Among hospitals, 79.5 percent or 5.5 million worked at state-run hospitals. The rest 20.5 percent or 1.4 million worked at private hospitals.

The number of outpatient care also inched up. The numbers of outpatient care recorded 8.18 billion, up by 250 million (3.2 percent) year-on-year. A Chinese person received 5.9 times of patient care on average last year.

The number of hospitalized patients also went up to 244 million in 2017, up 7.5 percent from a year earlier. A majority of 82.4 percent were admitted to state-run hospitals, and 17.6 percent, private ones.

Beijing said it planned to expand the healthcare market to 8 trillion yuan ($1.16 trillion) by 2020.

According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), the investment and supply of medical services are still in shortage in China, despite foreign hospitals’ increased entry into the mainland.