Malaysia Should Export Its Hospital Support Services, Says Chua

TAIPING, May 11 (Bernama) -- Local companies with the concession to provide support services to government hospitals should start expanding their business to the international level, Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said.
He said Malaysia's success in privatising the services had attracted the interest of many countries which have invited these companies to share their expertise and experience in the area.
"The ministry has received requests from other countries and I have told them that we are ready to provide advisory services in terms of technicalities and expertise, and related to this, we have encouraged three local companies to look at running their business operations there," he said at a press conference after launching the laundry services plant of Faber Medi-Serve in Kamunting, here Thursday.
Among the support services that have been privatised by the ministry since 1997 include clinical waste management, cleaning, maintenance of engineering and biomedical engineering facilities as well as laundry services.
Chua said with the government's plans not to increase the number of hospitals in the Ninth Malaysia Plan, these service providing companies would not be able to expand their businesses in the near future.
The government would be concentrating on upgrading existing facilities and equipment in its network of 135 hospitals under the 9MP, and therefore their opportunity to expand will be limited, he said.
On another note, Chua said the Institute of Medical Research would be carrying out research on Inborn Error of Metabolism (IEM) to prepare a more comprehensive data on the illness.
He said the research would be able to provide more data on the illness in which a patient lacks the enzyme to process protein from food.