Medical Tourism is a new segment in the Malaysian tourism industry. It used to be, the Malaysian will fly to UK to get the medical attention. Now the situation has changed, a number of visitors from neighboring countries are coming to obtain their medical treatment in Malaysia.
The reasons of choosing Malaysia for their medical treatment may be different for different group of peoples. The Singaporean will come to Malaysia because the cost is cheaper. For the same treatment in Singapore, the cost can be about double. The Indonesian may give different reason, it is probably that they are looking for a better facilities and shorter waiting time.
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PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will promote medical tourism packages in collaboration with local hospitals. “We are expecting more than 200,000 passengers coming to Malaysia as medical tourists next year,” said MAS senior general manager (network and revenue management) Dr Amin Khan. He said medical tourism had become popular due to the competitive pricing by Malaysian healthcare providers.
“It is essential that we begin partnering with hospitals to take advantage of this growing trend,” said Dr Amin, after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Tropicana Medical Centre (TMC) and MAS Holidays. He added that medical tourists were currently coming from Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Bangladesh and the number was expected to increase by 16% year on year over the next three years.
TMC Life Sciences group chief executive officer Francis Lim said medical tourism also benefited locals as it helped hospitals generate revenue to reinvest in better medical facilities and equip-ment. “For now MAS packages only provide health screening, but we may encourage them to introduce more medical services if there is a demand,” Lim said. He added that medical tourism was most popular in the field of health screening, cosmetic surgery and follow-up treatment.
Lim said the increase in the number of patients would not be a strain on the hospital's resources as the centre was still new and not using its full capacity yet.
-thestar online.
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