TMC Life, MASholiday in medical tourism tie-up

KUALA LUMPUR: TMC Life Sciences Bhd's Tropicana Medical Centre (TMC) has teamed up with Malaysia Airlines' MASholiday to offer healthcare services to visitors to Malaysia while enjoying the many attractions here.

The companies are offering customers a variety of packages which include accommodation, health screenings and transportation.

"We have already made inroads in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Indochina," TMC Life Sciences chief executive officer Francis Lim said.

"We hope to make inroads into countries like Europe, the Middle East and all of Malaysia Airlines' destinations," he added.

The two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the initiative yesterday.

"We have to take advantage of the booming international medical tourism market.

"We are pleased to take this a step further by collaborating with MASholidays to offer its clientele the convenience of having their health screenings," Lim said.

TMC hopes to attract five per cent of some four million international passengers which Malaysia Airlines brings to Malaysia annually.

Lim expects "a quantum leap" from a few hundred international patients which TMC receives every month with Malaysia Airlines' large number of passengers.

He feels that TMC is a strategically located medical centre in the Klang Valley for this project, as it is only 45 minutes away from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

TMC also has advanced facilities such as a magnetic resonance imaging machine and living space for guests.

Furthermore, with Malaysia's affordable healthcare as well as its developed tourism facilities, TMC expects to attract patients from both developed and less developed countries.

The anticipated influx of foreign patients is not expected to put a strain on TMC's resources as it is a fairly new hospital with the capacity to receive new patients.

Malaysia Airlines executive vice-president of commercial strategy Datuk Dr Amin Khan said: "Malaysia is a good destination for the family, especially compared to Thailand."

Amin Khan added that Malaysia offers healthcare at international standard, with highly qualified doctors and reasonable costs.

The package is in line with Malaysia's Economic Transformation Programme as it will contribute to the anticipated 16 per cent growth in the medical tourism industry, thus promoting the country as a medical tourism hub.