Materia Medica Malaysiana

Healthcare tourism to bolster Pantai

PANTAI Holdings Bhd aims to fully tap its healthcare tourism business, which lately has been experiencing healthy growth in Malaysia.
Group chairman Datuk Dr Ridzwan Bakar is optimistic over the prospects of healthcare tourism, given the anticipated robust growth in the private healthcare industry, which can be seen via the expansion of existing hospitals and setting up of new purpose-built hospitals nationwide.
“We expect the healthcare tourism business to help expand the revenue base of the Pantai group as part of its long-term strategy,” he added.
According to Dr Ridzwan, the Malaysian health tourism industry has grown by leaps and bounds from a mere 59,926 patients generating RM22mil in revenue in 1999 to 102,938 patients in 2003, with revenue of RM48.9mil.
In fact, in the first nine months of 2004, the country recorded 129,318 foreign patients with RM75.5mil in revenue, he said, adding that: “This figure, however, is under-reported as data from some hospitals is not forthcoming.”