Liow: Ministry’s medical tourism target surpassed

The Star Online KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has surpassed the expected target for medical tourism.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the revenue last year was RM511mil, an increase of 18.6% from RM431mil in 2010.

“We expect it to hit RM600mil by year-end,” he said at a press conference after opening the 20th APHM International Healthcare Conference and Exhibition 2012 yesterday.

Liow said the RM600mil could easily be achieved as up to May 31, as many as 236,836 foreign medical tourists had been treated, bringing in a total revenue of RM200.4mil.

He said tourist arrivals had also been growing at the rate of 30% for the last five years.

The popular areas of medical tourism were cardiology and orthopaedic surgery while aesthetic medicine was also fast catching up.

He said the Government had given all ministries the task of contributing to the economic growth of the nation, adding that the Health Ministry had worked together with its partners and other stakeholders to achieve the target through medical tourism.

On another matter, Liow said government hospitals still lacked specialists and hoped that more doctors would move towards specialisation.

“My intention is to offer specialist services at all district hospitals,” he said, adding that the private sector too should train specialists as currently, most were trained by the Government.

Asked if there was any progress on the issue of Lincoln University College (LUC) recruiting students for three unrecognised medical schools in Ukraine, Liow said he would look into it again.