WHILE the weakening currency will see spikes in cost for Malaysian clinics purchasing imported drugs and equipment but the Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) is confident it can play an integral role of positioning Malaysia as the leading global destination for healthcare.

“Should the ringgit continue to weaken, MHTC will negotiate necessary and creative measures. This is to enable private healthcare facilities to channel their finances for the most pertinent needs,” MHTC told The Malaysian Insight.

The MHTC is an agency under the Finance Ministry tasked to promote and facilitate healthcare tourisma as well as to solve issues faced by private and government healthcare facilities.

The weakening of the ringgit means more affordable treatment costs for medical tourists in Malaysia, who will get more value for their ringgit.

“Compared to neighbouring countries, or Western countries, Malaysia possesses world-class healthcare with easy accessibility with virtually no waiting time and highly affordable treatment rates.” said MHTC.

They said other incentives such as fixed ceiling rates for treatments ensure services remained realistically affordable.

“Coupled with the many incentives introduced by the government, including SST exemption on medical bills, this has increased Malaysia’s attractiveness as a leading healthcare travel destination.” it said.

Malaysia’s healthcare travel industry is growing at an average rate of 16-17% a year against the global average of 12-14% a year.  

The total number of healthcare travellers also increased by 12.4% from 921,000 in 2016 to 1.05 million in 2017.  – January 1, 2019.