In a concerted effort to boost medical tourism, Firefly in collaboration with the Penang Adventist Hospital (PAH) will commence daily flights from Medan starting tomorrow Feb 17, 2023.
In a press conference to announce development was State Exco for Tourism and Creative Economy, YB Yeoh Soon Hin along with PAH chief executive officer Ronald Koh Wah Heng.
Also present was the newly appointed Firefly chief operating officer, Captain Hamdan Che Ismail and his team.
“I feel honoured to be invited to such a momentous event marking a strategic collaboration between Penang Adventist Hospital and Firefly to fly in medical tourists coming from abroad to receive excellent medical services in Penang.
“This partnership has brought two industry leaders together and it is aimed at providing quality healthcare services to international patients while enabling them to explore the beauty of our state through the Wellness Screening Packages that has been mentioned previously.
“Penang Adventist Hospital offers state-of-the-art facilities and highly trained medical professionals, ensuring that patients receive the best possible treatment,” said Yeoh.
Meanwhile, Malaysia has been ranked as one of the top emerging markets for medical tourism in Asia for our pioneering medical advancements, affordability, strategic location, excellent healthcare quality and great hospitality. Not forgetting, Penang is a medical hub in this region.
Yeoh also shared that the global medical tourism market is growing at an impressive rate, with more and more patients seeking medical care abroad and the Penang State Government has invested in medical tourism and is able to attract a significant amount of medical tourists, generating more than 352 million in revenue last year.
*However, there is a huge opportunity for the expansion of this industry to other regions as well. We need to create a more diversified and resilient medical tourism industry that is not solely dependent on a few countries.
“Currently, I am looking into attracting international patients coming from the South Asia region with a population of 1.9 billion such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan etc. According to the information provided by Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council(MHTC), there are 800k Bangladeshis seeking treatment overseas yearly and this would be a great opportunity for us to bring them to Malaysia, especially to Penang.
“Besides, studies done by MHTC have shown that this region has the highest share of out-of-pocket health spending, standing at 40% of current health expenditure in 2018. The benefits of such expansion are immense, we can attract medical tourists, establish new direct flight routes, boost the local economy and most importantly, help patients in other parts of the world to gain access to high-quality medical care at affordable prices.” said Yeoh in his address.
