MALAYSIA : The Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) has projected receipts from foreigners seeking medical treatment in the country to grow 30 per cent a year until 2010. By that time, Malaysian healthcare providers could well rake in as much as RM584 million in medical revenue from treating some 849,000 foreigners.
" Between 2000 and 2007, the increase has been between 25 per cent and 30 per cent per year," APHM chairman for database and health tourism committee, Datuk Dr K.Kulaveerasingam, said.
" Thus Far, the Americans have been coming here mainly for cosmetic surgery."
" We hope to be able to lure patients from the US, the UK and Europe once our Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH) receives the International Society for Quality in Health Care Inc (ISQua) accreditation," he added.
Malaysia has its own MSQH scheme for accreditation, which is based on the Australian healthcare standard." We expect to have the accreditation by ISQua by this month," he said.
ISQua, a non-profit, independent organisation with members more than 70 countries, is known as accreditor for accrediting bodies.
Dr Kulaveerasingam also said that Malaysia is currently working with tour agencies in the US to bring in those who are not medically insured, or who are under-insured.
" Up to 40 per cent of those in the US are not insured. This is a potential market for us," he said.
Malaysia's medical tourism receipts could, in fact, be more than the forecast, given that the figures have been projected based on available data - 25 out of 35 registered hospitals provide their numbers to the association.
Initial estimates indicate that there could be 386,000 patients from overseas and RM265 million income for the hospitals last year. Some 70 per cent of overseas patients are from Indonesia.
Dr Kulaveerasingam said the projections were made based on the available data. The growth forecast is actually not too far from those made by "Patients Beyond Borders" author, Josef Woodman, who estimates medical tourism to grow 20-34 per cent annually, and that by 2010 the global market for the business will be US$40 billion (about RM127 billion).
According to Woodman, there are between two million and three million medical travellers worldwide, with most going to Southeast Asia, North Asia and India.
Reports have also indicated that Singapore wants to bring in one million patients by 2012, from abut 400,000 in 2006, while Thailand wants to draw two million foreign patients by 2010, up from 1.25 million in 2005.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------> Issued by : Vasantha Ganesan
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