Kuala Lumpur:
The Health Ministry announced that the country’s medical tourism surpassed the expected target. In his opening speech at the APHM International Healthcare Conference and Exhibition yesterday, Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the revenue last year was RM511 million (approximately US$161.9 million), an 18% increase from RM431 million (US$136.4 million) in 2010.
Despite the good news, Liow said the ministry won’t be resting on its laurels yet. “We expect it to hit RM600 million by year-end,” he said. He added that the new target 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 RM200.4 million (US$63.4 million).
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 to all district hospitals,” he said, adding that the private sector too should train specialists as currently, most were trained by the government.
source: http://www.HealthCareAsia.org / July 18th, 2012
