With all the enhancements made to Malaysian hospitals over the years, a hospital stay nowadays can be likened to a sojourn in a hotel.

Most local hospitals have moved from being functional buildings smelling of disinfectant to those with the ambience of high-class hotels.

The change aimed at providing better quality healthcare services to Malaysians was also partly spurred by the bid to attract foreigners into the country for health/medical tourism.

In 2005, Malaysia drew 230,000 foreigners into the country for health/medical tourism, generating a revenue of about RM 151 million.

The number grew to 297,000 in 2006, bringing receipts of RM 204 million for the country. The up trend seems to be continuing into the year with a 30% increase for the first quarter versus the same quarter of 2006.

About 65% to 70% of foreign patients coming into Malaysia are from Indonesia, 5% to 6% from Japan, 5% from Europe and 3% from India with Penang, Malacca and Johor Bharu being favorites destinations.

Currently, 35 private hospitals are earmarked to participate in the promotion of health / medical tourism in the country. Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia board member and chairman of committee on database and health/medical tourism Datuk Dr. K. Kulaveerasingam is confident Malaysia has the potential to become a health/medical tourism hub in the next few years.

“Malaysia is slowly coming up in the health/medical tourism business we can see from the statistic that it is growing.

“Health/medical tourism started tp pick up from 2002 in Malaysia and is currently on the up trend. The outlook for health/medical tourism in the country is very bright it is a recession proof industry” he told Starbiz.

He is projecting foreign receipts from health/medical tourism to hit RM 300 milllion this year.
Island Hospital chief executive officer and Penang Health Group chairman Datuk Dr Chan Kok Ewe expects the growth trend for the country’s health/medical to continue, barring unforeseen developments.

“Growth in the next two or three years could be reflective of the growth experienced in the past years. However, growth would likely plateau and begin to lose momentum unless new markets are added to the current medical tourist list,” he said.

The Penang Health Group comprises seven private hospitals in the state to jointly promote health tourism.

According to Dr. Kulaveerasingam, the country’s biggest competitors for health/medical tourism are Thailand, India and Singapore.

Nevertheless, he believes Malaysia will be able to give its competitors a run for their money due to its excellent healthcare facilities and specialist, infrastructure, transportations network, multi-lingual and multi-racial community.

“We meet people in the same industry from Thailand and Singapore at major medical conferences and they tell us Malaysia is a sleeping giant. They are worried about us,” he said. Despite all the optimism, challenges abound for Malaysia in its quest to attract more foreigners here for health/medical tourism.

Dr. Kulaveerasingam stressed the importance of branding for the country’s health/medical tourism industry to provide a better platform to market and promote the product.

“We have appointed an advertising agency to come up with a branding for health/medical tourism for Malaysia. It should be out this year”

Another challenge faced is in training. Dr. Kulaveerasingam wants, local universities to work closely with the private sector by welcoming experienced senior practicing doctors to train student.

“We also have a shortage of doctors in special areas, for example, in the Intensive Care Unit,” he said.

He is calling for centers of excellence for example, a cancer center, neurology center and an orthopedic and trauma center to be set up.

Dr. Chan said. The challenge for Penang would be to maintain and even increase its market share in the industry.

“ Perhaps the government can assist with some form of incentives based on the productivity and need for long-term proactive development of new markets,” he added.

On grouses that health/medical tourism has resulted in healthcare providers compromising its service to local patients, Dr Kulaveerasingam said the first priority of private hospital was to look after local patients.

“ They are our bread and butter. Foreigners are icing on the cake for us. Normally, the maximum occupancy rate for hospitals is 85% to 90%. The average occupancy rate of local patients is 63% to 65%. This increases to 75% to 80% with foreign patients, so we have a leeway of about 10% for more foreign patients without compromising our service to local patients,” he said.

STARBIZ, Monday, Aug 27, 2007.