Sarawak’s private healthcare boom fuels growth in medical tourism, says Dr Sim

KUCHING (Aug 9): Sarawak is seeing increasing interest in medical tourism driven by strong private healthcare investments in the state, said Deputy Premier Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.

The State Minister of Public Health, Housing and Local Government said Sarawak was fortunate to have both public and private healthcare sectors working hand-in-hand.

“Sarawak is very fortunate that we have healthcare as a whole, there are two components — one is the public, one is the private. And we need both to come together.

“And the private one, I mean, private healthcare tourism, with the KPJ (Healthcare Berhad), IHH (Healthcare Berhad), Mahkota Medical Centre Group, with our Normah (Medical Specialist Centre), you know, Sunway (Medical Centre) — all these are investing heavily in Sarawak,” he told reporters after officiating at the launch of the National Information Dissemination Centre (Nadi) Batu Kawah here today.

Dr Sim added that several private hospitals were under construction, which would collectively provide more than 1,000 additional private hospital beds in the next few years.

“To build a hospital is not overnight. It’s not the same as building a house or a shop. There is a lot of equipment and all those things need to go in. SGH (Sarawak General Hospital) has only 1,000 beds.

“So with three to four new hospitals coming up, that’s more than the size of another SGH,” he said.

Dr Sim said the scale of private hospital projects reflected investor confidence in Sarawak’s healthcare market.

“These investors have done the market survey that Sarawak is doing well. Otherwise, no one would invest because for these hospitals, it’s a few hundred million ringgit, not just one or two million,” he said.

Dr Sim highlighted that medical tourism in Sarawak attracted mostly Indonesian and Singaporean patients.

“A lot of these patients come here, often with their families. The patient gets treatment, the family goes shopping — patient happy, family happy, doctors happy, and the bank also happy,” he said.

On Singaporeans, he noted the potential role of the Mahkota Group, which is owned by Singaporeans and operates hospitals in Johor and Malacca.

“Singaporeans can get treatment in Johor and deduct it from their CPF (Central Provident Fund). Treatment in Singapore is much more expensive. So can you imagine if treatment in Sarawak is even cheaper? It becomes very attractive,” he said.

However, Dr Sim cautioned that the expansion of private healthcare must be matched by a sufficient supply of doctors and nurses.

He added that some private specialists, particularly from the Sarawak Heart Centre, contribute back to public hospitals through sessional work.

“If we didn’t train them in the public hospital, they wouldn’t be able to earn as much each month. So, do some sessions in the public hospital to help us maintain the best services,” he said.