The
rising demand for instantaneous quality care continues to drive Malaysia’s
medical tourism industry. With only 150,000 medical tourists short of a
million, Malaysia was crowned the International Medical Travel Journal’s
‘Health and Medical Destination of the Year', for the second time running. The
global recognition of Malaysia’s endeavours is in spite of increasing
competition and widespread economic challenges the country has faced in 2015.
For
Malaysia, medical tourism is not a money-making, get-rich scheme. On the contrary,
it is a market expansion approach for the country's already established
world-class private healthcare facilities. High-quality medical treatment,
aided by innovative medical technology is offered to every patient.
Malaysia health tourism is growing in spite of
2015…
According
to Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC), 2015 saw 850,000 medical tourists
travel to Malaysia, a 3.6% decrease compared to the 882,000 who came in 2014.
Despite this, they are growing because of the maturation of the Malaysian
medical tourism sector. Revenue earned through medical tourism by hospitals
alone grew by 17% from RM770 million to just under RM1 billion. Revenue growth,
alongside the expansion of our medical offerings and market reach to North
America, Middle East, Africa and Europe continues to drive the advancement of
Malaysian healthcare.
In 2015,
approximately 80% of health tourists who visited Malaysia came from
neighbouring countries including Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore. Health
Minister, Dr. S. Subramanian revealed this year that “there was an influx of
patients seeking treatment at Malaysia’s public and private medical centres
from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, and from countries in the Middle East and
Africa.” The shifting patient base demonstrates Malaysia’s move away from being
merely a regional player in medical tourism to an international powerhouse in
cross-border health tourism.
A Frost
& Sullivan report anticipates that medical tourism, along with elder care,
will drive healthcare sector growth in the medium to long-term.
Why is Malaysia growing?
When MHTC
started in 2009, in addition to state-of-the-art health screening services, the
government focused on long-term reactive care and diagnostic treatments in
cardiology, oncology, orthopaedic, neurology and fertility. Concurrently, the
private medical sectors for plastic and cosmetic surgery, dentistry, and LASIK
developed rapidly as private clinics and medical facilities began to play a
bigger role in developing its services in Malaysia.
As the
market for medical tourism continues to develop, Malaysia has strengthened its
medical tourism offering to preventive care. The holistic care available in
Malaysia gives medical tourists the opportunity to combine their treatments
with alternative recovery packages. The range of wellness treatments available
in Malaysia offers wellness tourists a host of alternative medicine and
treatments such as Yoga, Ayurveda, Traditional Complementary Eastern Medicine,
Detoxification, Mental Health Retreats, and Anti-Ageing treatments.
Furthermore,
Malaysia has the intrinsic advantage of becoming a Global Halal Hub, with most
if not all medical and non-medical facilities designed to be Muslim-friendly.
There is a wide range of Muslim-friendly, Halal-certified medical facilities,
eateries, accommodations, public amenities like prayer rooms and mosques, and
Halal medical alternatives and medications that are alcohol-, gelatin- and
porcine-free. Another pull factor for Middle Eastern medical tourists in
Malaysia is that they have many medical professionals and personnel, both men
and women, who are Muslim.
The ideal
combination for cross-border healthcare, Malaysia is equipped for the
international medical tourists seeking world-class medical treatment at
competitive prices in a multicultural and English-friendly environment all done
in JCI, ISQua, ISO 9001, ACHSI, and MSQH accredited medical facilities. The
depreciated Malaysian Ringgit offers medical tourists more value for money on
surgery and holidays in Malaysia.
What this
means is that international patients can already get 5-star treatment at 3-star
prices in one of South East Asia’s economic power hubs with the assurance of
personal safety and without sacrificing the quality of treatment received.
Where can Malaysia grow?
Realistically,
the future of Malaysia’s medical tourism sector is a fine tuning process.
An
analysis by Frost & Sullivan found that in comparison to other ASEAN
countries, “Malaysia has a higher-than-average availability of medical
personnel and high quality facilities providing treatments across different
ranges of the cost spectrum, making it an attractive destination for medical
tourist.”
But there
is always room for growth. In the name of delivering outstanding patient
experiences, Malaysia’s growth in medical tourism will be linked to more
infrastructural development, an expansion of serviceable cities, investment in
human resource and advanced international patient training, quality
standardization, and enhance marketing to international markets on Malaysia’s
vast benefits.
The
International Living magazine ranked Malaysia as one of the world’s top four
medical tourism destinations in terms of service quality, accessibility,
standard of post-procedure recuperation options and cost-competitiveness.
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