Sun, Sea and Scalpels
Fed up with museums and bungee jumping? Looking for a new holiday
activity? Try surgery
BY LIM LI MIN HONG KONG
Fancy a hip replacement and an Asian vacation? With bargain prices,
a wealth of medical specialists and alluring post-op locales, Southeast
Asian has proved irresistible to ailing tourists. Singapore entered
the clinical fray about a decade ago, followed by Thailand a few
years later; now Malaysia is on the health-tourism bandwagon.
Capitalizing on its Western-trained medics and a favorable exchange
rate (neighboring Singapore’s treatments cost twice as much),
Malaysia’s wards now proffer everything from laparoscopic surgery
to liposuction. And patients are flocking: the Association of Private
Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) claims that in 2002 nearly 85,000 medical
tourists checked themselves in to Malaysian clinics, mostly from
Indonesia and other Asian countries but also many from Europe. “We’re
multicultural and multilingual,” says the association’s
Datuk Dr. Ridzwan Bakar. “And we’re the most competitively
priced country in the Asia-Pacific region, bar India.”
Malaysia’s other major selling point is its ability to perform
difficult treatments. Among the most popularly requested operations
are cardiac by pass surgery – the National Heart Institute
is a leading center in the region – and fertility treatments,
with the country’s premier Damansara Fertility Centre claiming
in vitro success rates that match top U.S. clinics’.
Medical standards may vary greatly from facility to facility, however.
Quality control and data collection are sometimes patchy, and some
malpractice investigations have dragged on for more than five years. “APHM
is pushing for better transparency,” concedes Ridzwan.
You should also beware of the glossed-up hard sell. There have been
reports in the local press of patients being advised to have surgery
that was unnecessary and of doctors being paid for referrals. So
do your research diligently. The following hospitals are useful places
to start:
Pantai Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur Posh patients can
enjoy deluxe accommodation at Pantai’s Royal and Premier
Suites. This includes the services of a bow-tied butler, satellite
TV and digs more Regent Hotel than recovery room. Some even
have a one-way mirror for your personal security guard to check
up on you.
Mahkota Medical Centre Melaka this 356-bed hospital
offers homely hostel rooms in the same block for visiting
family members. The center’s specialties include
affordable caesarean delivery and open-heart surgery.
Outpatients might want to consider Mahkota’s three-day/two-night
health-screening packages, which include tours of the
historic town and even transportation to a local golf
course.
Beautiful Holidays, Penang Marketed to European
through the Europeans through the Internet, Beautiful
Holidays (beautiful-holidays.com) is a tour company providing
plastic-surgery packages in conjunction with 2 private
hospitals l in Penang. The most popularly requested operations:
liposuction and tummy tucks. “Our customers enjoy
the anonymity,” says Marloes Giezenaar, Beautiful
Holidays’ managing directors. “They fly in,
recuperate around the pool, and fly out again without
anyone noticing they’ve been under the knife.” The
company can also arrange post surgery tours of Penang.
Country Heights Medical Tourism (CHMT), Kuala
Lumpur The country’s only medical screening
center within a five star resort, CHMT offers patients
a battery of diagnostic tests (including fluoroscopy
and abdominal ultrasounds) and the results five
hours later. Pass the time by taking a water taxi
to the neighboring Mines Shopping Fair for a bout
of retail therapy.
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