Sime Darby Healthcare Sees Higher Contribution From Medical Tourism

Sime Darby Healthcare Sdn Bhd expects medical tourism to contribute 20 per cent to its total revenue in the next five years with the completion two new hospitals.

Managing Director Raja Azlan Shah Raja Azwa said the 220-bed Sime Darby Medical Centre Ara Damansara (SDMC AD) would be operational by the third quarter of 2011 while the 300-bed Sime Darby Medical Centre ParkCity (SDMC PC) in the second half of 2012.

"These two hospitals will help us generate medical tourism. At the moment, we have about 4,000 international patients," he told a press conference here today.Presently, medical tourism contributes between three and five per cent to the company's total revenue.

Raja Azlan Shah said the target was to get about 900,000 patients in the next five years from the current 500,000 patients and this would boost the company's total revenue to RM700 million from RM300 million within the same period.

He said the company had invested about RM280 million in SDMC AD and SDMC PC and of the total, about RM240 million went to the one in Ara Damansara which would have its soft launch in August."We will open with 73 beds and will have the final opening in November," he said.SDMC PC, which is scheduled for completion by mid-2012, is currently 20 per cent complete.

"The investment in the two hospitals has been identified as part of the Entry Point Project (EPP) 4. Under the EPP 4, the target is to attract two million health travellers to Malaysia by 2020," Raja Azlan Shah said.To achieve the target, he said, the healthcare sector would require an additional 1,900 beds, and the bulk of the investment was expected to come from the private sector.

"At full capacity, the two new hospitals will add another 520 beds or more than 25 per cent of the additional capacity required under EPP 4. Coupled with the 393 beds in Sime Darby Medical Centre Subang Jaya, our total number of beds will increase to more than 900," he said.

Raja Azlan expected Sime Darby Healthcare's participation in the ETP to also help create more jobs, estimating an additional 1,500 new jobs to be created by 2020.SDMC AD will have a Brain Centre featuring a Stroke Clinic and an Epilepsy Clinic, the Paediatric and Adult Heart Centre, and the Spine andamp; Joint Centre.

SDMC PC, located in Desa ParkCity, will be the Sime Darby Healthcare group's third hospital with inpatient facilities. It will be positioned as a secondary care hospital dedicated to comprehensive women's and children's healthcare with focus on breast oncology, child development and the treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes.

Source = bernama.com.my