Malaysia - Private hospital market ‘will rake in RM14b in 2015’

The private hospital services market in Malaysia is expected to reach RM13.79 billion in 2015, with a compound annual growth rate of 16.5% from 2010-2020, according to an independent research house.

The segment earned a revenue of RM7.48 billion in 2011, and spent an estimated 4.4% of gross domestic product on healthcare in the same year, according a study presented by Frost & Sullivan yesterday.

The research house said despite low spending on healthcare, the performance of Malaysia’s public sector is "commendable and comparable" to some developed countries.

Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific vice president for healthcare Rhenu Bhuller in her presentation entitled "Asia Pacific Healthcare Outlook 2012-2015" in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, said Malaysia has the potential to see a threefold increase from 2007 in the private hospital market in 2015.

Breaking down the figures by state, Bhuller said by 2015, private hospital services in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor are expected to earn RM3.17 and RM3.14 respectively, followed by Penang with RM1.89 billion, Johor RM1.23 billion and Malacca with RM1.31 billion.

She said the Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospitals in Asia have increased by almost sevenfold over the past six years (2005-2011) and Malaysia currently has nine JCI accredited hospitals.

Touching on medical tourism, Bhuller said hospitals in Malaysia are diversifying to increase competitiveness to capture more medical tourism market.

Indonesian patients represent the biggest bulk of health travellers constituting to nearly 70% of the total arrivals to Malaysia.

The report showed the state of Penang, which account to 20% of its private hospitals entrusted by the government for medical tourism and has the majority of Indonesian patients, managed to grow its medical tourism revenue by 5% to RM165 million in 2009 despite the economic downturn.

“Patients from Indonesia are the biggest market for medical tourism in Malaysia, and in identifying this influx, the Indonesian government is looking at ways to improve their healthcare system to cater their population,” she said.

John Gilbert     

The Malaysian Reserve

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