Materia Medica Malaysiana

SMC eyes major bite of health tourism cake

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Medical Centre (SMC), the State's first private hospital, is excited about the prospects of health tourism following the Government's forecast of it being a RM2.2 billion earner by 2010 plus the fact that Sabah has been doing exceptionally well in tourism lately.
Its Executive Chairman, Dr Tseu Fui Loong, said it has invested heavily in its new building in Damai, Luyang, expected to be fully operational in June. The equipment installed rank among the most advanced in the region.
Altogether 787 foreign patients from 22 countries have sought treatment at SMC the past three years. One hundred and ninety five were inpatients, mainly British (33), Indonesians (25), Europeans (20), Filipinos (19) and Australians (18). The rest comprised Americans and Chinese.
Britons (123) formed the bulk of the outpatients, followed by Japanese (77), Koreans (70), Europeans (65), Chinese (51), Australians (44), Indonesians (40) and Filipinos (32).
"This is despite the fact that we had no active overseas promotion," said Dr Tseu, adding SMC satisfies criteria such as membership in the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM), capacity to provide tertiary or a highly-specialised level of care, ability to acquire accreditation on the quality of its service and availability of in-house facilities such as laboratory, pharmacy and radio-imaging.
Dr Tseu, who is also the Medical Superintendent, said they had been planning for health tourism ever since the MBO (Management Buy-Out).
"We have all the right ingredients to formulate our health tourism package as a wellness programme such as health screening, and also as a medical treatment programme.
"We would like to promote SMC as a better and cheaper alternative to people in nearby countries. Kota Kinabalu, being the second busiest airport in Malaysia, has this potential," he said.
"In line with the opening of the new building, we will devise ways to tap the foreign market. We embarked on advertisements with UK's National Health Services (NHS) Overseas Hospital Project since last September.
"We also participated in their NHS e-messaging programme," he said. More details are in www.nhspurchasing.com.
Dr Tseu noted that the projected revenue from health tourism in Malaysia is RM540 million this year and is confident of positioning itself as a key player.
"Firstly, our advantages are cheaper cost (compared with services in Europe, US and Singapore), uniqueness, professional care and security.
"Secondly, the Sabah Government's tourism promotion efforts have borne fruit as reflected in the increase of annual tourist arrivals. The number has shot to well over the one million resistance level," Dr Tseu said.
"The ripple effect resulting from this critical mass of foreign visitors augurs well for the promotion of health tourism."
Furthermore, the State's tourism products are constantly being improved, and we have excellent resort hotels. Dr Tseu said it was necessary to think not only of visitors who come for our wellness or medical treatment programme, but also their family and loved ones.
"Suffice to say whatever the length of stay of our overseas patients previously, we expect our future patients from abroad to stay much longer to enjoy the beauty, tranquillity and uniqueness of Sabah while recuperating with their companions."
Asked on the types of treatment sought by these foreign patients, he said they included tonsillectomy (surgical removal of the tonsils), appendicectomy (removal of the appendix by a surgical operation), laparotomy (the operation of making an incision into the abdominal wall), haemorrhoidectomy (surgical removal of piles), angiogram (X-ray photograph of blood vessels, especially of the heart), right hip aspiration (removing fluid from a cavity of the body), and rigid cystoscopy (examination of the urinary bladder).
Dr Tseu also said as a member of the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM), SMC regularly submits its data on foreign patients to the association.
Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek recently said only a few of the 31 private hospitals targeted for the Ministry's medical tourism programme had submitted data on foreign patients.
"Although we do not need to be in the Ministry's list to promote health tourism, we are looking forward to receiving the Ministry's acknowledgement so that we can benefit from the Government's overseas promotion activities."
The Malaysian Government, in response to the economic crisis in 1997-1998, formed a national committee on health tourism "in an effort to develop the industry to boost tourism earnings."
Initially, 44 of the 225 private hospitals (current number) were selected by the Ministry and promoted as Malaysian private hospitals with the capacity to provide health tourism services.