Medical tourism key in reopening sector, says private hospital association

 

The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) has identified medical tourism as a potential area to kick-start the reopening of the tourism sector to foreign visitors as part of the National Recovery Plan.

Its president Dr Kuljit Singh said the process could begin in two months as the government continue to loosen Covid-19 prevention restrictions and Malaysia heads towards a 100 percent fully vaccinated adult population.

"We are looking specifically at opening a green bubble for medical tourists.

"Of the various kind of tourists, the easiest, safest and most regulated are medical tourists," Kuljit told Malaysiakini.

He earlier appeared as a panellist at a National Recovery Summit co-organised by the National Recovery Council, The Economic Club of Kuala Lumpur and think-tank KSI Strategic Institute for Asia Pacific.

Targeting fully vaccinated medical tourists, Kuljit pointed out that their journey will involve point to point travel from home to the hospital.

"So, all the required procedures, it would be very easy to regulate," he added.

Kuljit said there is an existing pool of medical tourists eagerly awaiting reopening of private healthcare services here as they have pending procedures or ongoing treatments.

Among others, Kuljit cited a long list of patients from Indonesia who contributed to a reported RM1.7 billion in medical tourism revenue collected in 2019.

Unlike the current arrangement that requires travel on a private chartered flight, Kuljit said new approvals could involve discussions with airline operators to target destinations where there is a high demand from patients.

"This can also assist the airline operators to revive their operations.

"APHM is happy to sit down with the government and airlines to discuss how to implement the medical tourism green bubble," he said.

On concerns over imported Covid-19 cases, Kuljit said entry bans could still be imposed on travellers from countries with known new variants that are not present in Malaysia.

Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) chief executive officer Mohd Daud Mohd Arif was previously quoted as saying that Malaysia aims to generate RM650 million in revenue from the medical tourism industry in 2021, a further reduction from RM800 million collected in 2020.

This was assuming the country opens its borders for international travellers by the fourth quarter of this year. - Mkini