In 2019, Charelle, a 3-year-old girl from the Indonesian city of Medan, had symptoms of a persistent fever that didn’t seem to go away. Concerned, local doctors suspected a serious condition beyond the capabilities of domestic hospitals. They referred her to specialists at Gleneagles Hospital—one of the brands of IHH Healthcare (IHHH)—in Malaysia’s Penang.
After a series of tests, the specialists diagnosed her with acute lymphocytic leukaemia—a cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow—and recommended that she be given chemotherapy chemotherapy Chemotherapy Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment that uses powerful drugs to target and destroy rapidly dividing cancer cells in the body. It is often used in combination with other treatments like surgery or radiation therapy. immediately.
Four years later, in February 2023, Charelle’s family got some good news: her cancer was in remission and the chemo port, installed on her chest to efficiently deliver the drugs, was to be removed soon.
All this while, Charelle and her parents were stationed in Penang, with the family raising raising Kitabisa Cerita Orang Tua Cherelle Demi Biaya Kemoterapi Read more over IDR 1 billion (~US$70,000) on a crowdfunding platform to be able to afford the long-drawn-out treatment.
Typically, people travel to other countries for treatment of complex diseases when healthcare is expensive, specialists are not available, or there’s a long waiting period at home. India, Thailand, and Malaysia have emerged as the three largest destinations in Asia for medical tourism. In 2022, the Indian government even launched the “Heal in India” portal to give an impetus to health tourism.
Thanks to Indonesians like Charelle, over 1.2 million patients brought in a revenue of over RM1.7 billion (US$384 million) for Malaysia’s medical-tourism sector in 2019, according to data data MHTC Healthcare traveller statistics Read more from Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC), a government body.
But just as the country was experiencing a boom in its medical-tourism sector, the Covid-19 pandemic closed international borders. While some patients like Charelle stayed put, most others were locked out. After a rocky three-year hiatus, medical tourism in Malaysia is witnessing a revival.
“Medical tourists returned as soon as borders opened in early 2022,” said Ivan Loh, the chief executive (CEO) of Gleneagles Penang. “Business started picking up in March and April [2022] itself, and we haven’t had a bad month since then.”
Malaysia’s medical-tourism sector is entering an ambitious second phase of expansion. Backed by government policies, the sector is moving up the value chain to focus on segments such as cardiology and oncology even as it seeks to attract patients from other countries to cut its dependence on Indonesia.
