GEORGE TOWN: Even if international borders are reopened without the need for a mandatory quarantine, medical tourism players in Penang say they will keep their guard up as the number of Covid-19 cases is still quite high.
Penang Adventist Hospital president and chief executive officer Ronald Koh said as much as they are excited by the news that the borders could be fully opened from March 1 without the need for mandatory quarantines, they are cautious in accepting patients due to the rise of Omicron variant cases.
He said industry players are hopeful that the Omicron variant wave will be over by April.
“Most of our population has been fully vaccinated and many have also received their booster shots, which makes it a safer environment for all.
“However, our concern is that without the mandatory quarantine, our staff’s health may be at risk when they attend to patients,” he said yesterday.
Koh, who is also a board member of the Association of Private Hospi-tals Malaysia, said the mandatory quarantine would deter foreign patients from coming to Penang to get treatment.
He said foreign patients would not want to observe the mandatory quarantine unless they have serious medical conditions.
“Medical tourism accounts for 30% to 40% of our total revenue. We have lost 30% of our patients who are foreigners since the Covid-19 outbreak two years ago,” he said, adding that 80% to 85% of the foreign patients were from Indonesia.
Penang tourism committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said doing away with the mandatory quarantine for foreigners seeking medical treatment in the country would definitely benefit the sector.
He said Penang had been recognised in the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Industry Blueprint as being the “most established state in healthcare travel”.
“The medical tourism industry in Penang generates more than 50% of the country’s medical tourism income.
“On top of that, the industry has numerous multiplier effects on the local economy as medical tourists usually come with their family members who will spend money on hotels and food, among others,” he said.
Yeoh, however, said with the rise in Covid-19 cases lately due to the Omicron variant, it is vital to have strict guidelines for foreign patients.
“As much as we want to allow medical tourists to enter the country and the state, the good health and well-being of our people will always remain the top priority.
“We need to ensure that the standard operating procedure is in place to ensure that both patients and our local community are protected from the virus,” he said.
According to the Malaysia Health-care Travel Industry Blueprint 2021-2025, Penang tops the charts in healthcare travel revenue, raking in RM750mil from 500,000 patients who flew to the state in 2019.
According to the blueprint, more than 1.22 million healthcare travellers brought close to RM1.7bil in revenue for Malaysia between 2015 and 2019.
In 2019, Indonesians made up 65.8% of the total number of healthcare travellers followed by those from China at 5.1%, India at 3.1%, the United Kingdom at 2% and Japan at 2%.
According to the blueprint, 45% of healthcare travellers come for health screenings, 10% seek gastroenterology treatment, 7% cancer therapy, 7% obstetrics and gynaecology treatments, and the rest come for infectious diseases and cardiology and orthopaedic surgery, among other reasons.
On Tuesday, the National Recovery Council (NRC) recommended that the country’s international borders be fully reopened by March 1 without a mandatory quarantine period.
However, NRC chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said visitors should undergo Covid-19 tests prior to and right after arriving in the country, as recommended by the Health Ministry.