Malaysia is about to open to medical tourists from six countries
2020-09-03
Malaysia has significantly lowered its 2020 medical tourism revenue target and postponed its 2020 Malaysia Medical Travel Year (MyHT2020) event to 2022. Certain Indonesian patients have been allowed to go to hospitals in Malaysia for treatment. By September, patients from six countries, Australia, Brunei, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea, may be allowed to enter.
The first stage of Malaysia's medical tourism recovery plan allows only critically ill foreign medical travelers who need to be treated in intensive care units or highly dependent wards to enter. Only air travel is allowed, and only one caregiver is allowed to accompany the patient. The first stage mainly allows Indonesian medical tourists to obtain approval and undergo polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. Only MHTC member hospitals are allowed to accept these foreign patients.
The border with Malaysia remained closed until the end of August, but the border with Singapore is expected to reopen before August 31.
The second phase of the opening of the border includes medical tourists from the following countries:
Australia
Brunei
Japan
new Zealand
Singapore
Korea
This may not be simple, because in Australia, the exit border has to be closed at least until September.
The Malaysian Medical Tourism Council (MHTC) aims to promote Malaysia's 2020 Medical Travel Year (MyHT2020), which is the country's first large-scale international medical travel event. Since then, the event has been postponed to 2022, and 2021 will be the recovery phase after Covid-19.
Understanding Malaysia Medical Tourism
In recent years, Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Thailand have become emerging medical tourism countries. The medical tourism industry in Malaysia has developed relatively rapidly and maturely, which is inseparable from the strong policy support of the local government. The local government invests billions of dollars in the development of medical tourism every year, and supports the medical tourism industry as a key funding industry. For example, the government provides preferential rental and tax policies for private hospitals that have established partnerships with world-renowned medical institutions. Private hospitals where foreign patients account for more than 5% are granted tax relief policies.
Malaysia is particularly prominent in medical projects such as physical examination, cardiac surgery, orthopedics, dentistry, and IVF. Most of its medical staff have received relevant education or training in developed countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They have a high level of practice and adopt an international medical system. In general, Malaysian medical services are characterized by high quality, low price, and strong professionalism.
At present, the main source country of Malaysia's medical tourism is Indonesia. According to relevant data, there were 1.2 million medical tourism tourists in 2018, of which Indonesians accounted for 60%. In 2019, the revenue of the Malaysian medical tourism sector was 1.7 billion ringgit (4 100 million U.S. dollars), there are 1.3 million medical tourists, and Indonesians account for a large proportion. This is the main reason why the first phase of Malaysia mainly allows Indonesian medical tourists to enter.
Malaysia attaches great importance to the Chinese medical tourism market. MHTC carries the mission of promoting Malaysian medical services to the world. Last year, the head of MHTC said in an interview at the exhibition site, “MHTC has participated in the Zhenghe International Medical Tourism Exhibition for several years. The main purpose of the exhibition is It is to promote the exposure of Malaysian medical brands, and to find suitable partners to promote Malaysian medical care and give Chinese consumers more choices."
In Malaysia, English and Chinese are widely used, and many hospitals also have specialized translators to provide language translation services for patients, so it is also very convenient for Chinese medical tourism consumers. Now, under the premise of ensuring the safety of epidemic prevention and control, restrictions on the entry and exit of medical or tourist personnel such as Thailand, Ukraine, Taiwan, and Macau have been relaxed, and cross-border medical treatment has gradually recovered. Chinese tourists also hope that Malaysia can treat China as soon as possible. Opening the borders will give them one more country of choice for cross-border medical tourism.
