KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 — Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin today launched the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Industry Blueprint 2021-2025 developed by the Malaysian Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC) as a guideline for industry recovery as the country transitions into endemicity.
The five-year industry blueprint aims to enhance the country’s current health care travel ecosystem, strengthen the Malaysia health care brand, and expand the introduction of Malaysia’s health care offerings to more targeted markets.
“As we transition towards endemicity, our key priorities include the maintenance of high-quality care and safety above all else. We need to up the ante by embracing digitalisation of the entire patient journey experience.
“With this blueprint, Malaysia has begun forging a new frontier to redefine the patient experience through a unified and collaborative approach to digitalisation. This will allow health care providers to improve upon service delivery and reinforce our patients’ peace of mind, especially in Malaysia’s niche offerings, such as the Fertility and Cardiology Hubs of Asia and the Cancer Care Centre of Excellence.
“With this blueprint, we aspire to provide the best Malaysian health care travel experience by 2025. And I believe this is within our grasp,” Khairy said in his speech during the virtual launch of the blueprint today.
Also present at the virtual launch was Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Health secretary-general Mohd Shafiq Abdullah, and MHTC CEO Mohd Daud Mohd Arif.
The key strategies of the blueprint include improving the quality of medical care, digitising the patient journey, continuing efforts to be a world-leading destination that provides affordable medical offerings to health care travellers, and elevating Malaysia’s offerings in hospitality alongside its position as a safe and trusted destination for both medical and leisure offerings.
“For every plan and aspiration articulated today, we must bear in mind that the end goal is to build a sustainable future for the health care system. Just as how a collective effort is currently taken to transition Malaysia into the endemic phase, an all-of-industry effort is equally needed to execute this Blueprint with excellence.
“l urge for better cross-border health care collaborations and encourage nations to cooperate more efficiently for a more sustainable health care delivery globally,” Khairy said.
MHTC’s Mohd Daud said the blueprint is especially important as Malaysia health care has been identified as a key economic driver under the export services sector.
“On that note, we will continue to strengthen on our unique public-private partnership which has been an undeniable success factor behind our industry growth thus far.
“This was most evident during the lockdown, when we collaboratively created a medical travel bubble, to provide continuity of care for our health care travellers, especially those in dire need of treatment,” Mohd Daud said.
The Malaysia Healthcare Travel Industry Blueprint 2021-2025 will be rolled out in two phases, namely the Recovery Phase (2021-2022) and the Rebuild Phase (2023-2025).
The Recovery Phase will focus on reinforcing awareness of Malaysia health care’s world-class quality offerings and enhancing the patient experience through digitalisation efforts.
The Rebuild Phase will see industry players work together collectively to amplify awareness of Malaysia health care’s niche offerings.
MHTC is also establishing the Flagship Medical Tourism Hospital Programme to further strengthen Malaysia’s stance as a leading health care destination, as well as developing Malaysia as a destination for retirement living.
