Reopening of borders will allow medical tourists to return, says private hospitals
KUALA LUMPUR - The full reopening of the country's border will allow medical tourists to return to Malaysia for their medical care which has been on a halt since early 2020, President of Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said.
While welcoming the National Recovery Council’s (MPN) recommendation for the country’s borders to be fully opened from March 1 without the need for mandatory quarantine, he said it would also help revive the medical tourism industry which generated RM1.7 billion to the country in 2019.
He said the association has 151 member hospitals throughout the country with a majority of them treating medical tourists, particularly from the neighbouring countries.
"However, private hospitals will strictly adhere to all standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the Ministry of Health on the screening of medical tourists before accepting medical tourists for treatment.
"We will accept fully vaccinated medical tourists with a booster dose (preferably) so that there is lesser risk of them falling very ill should there be a COVID-19 infection during the course of treatment and further to protect our local health care providers,” he said in a statement today,
Yesterday, MPN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin suggested to the government to fully reopen the country’s international borders as early as March 1 without the mandatory quarantine requirement.
Meanwhile, Dr Kuljit also noted that private hospitals in this country are ready to accept decanted patients from public hospitals should there be an unlikely surge of Omicron patients in government facilities.
He said during the Delta COVID-19 peak last year, 113 private hospitals received out-sourced patients from 49 Ministry of Health hospitals.
"We are confident to continue our support to the government to ease the burden as mentioned by the Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in his speech on Feb 7. Private hospitals have been included in the National COVID-19 Rapid Response Task Force (RRTF) to facilitate this process,” he said.
Dr Kuljit said APHM also urged the public to get their booster doses at the earliest.
"It is evident worldwide, complete vaccination with boosters has brought the severity of the pandemic down and it has encouraged economic recovery with the opening of international borders,” he added. - Bernama.
