Singapore to reign as regional medical hub

In good times or bad, the demand for healthcare in Singapore will continue to increase as its growing population ages.

To meet the increasing healthcare needs of the population, the government is tapping more on private healthcare resources. One example is the recently introduced Community Health Assist Scheme which will allow 710,000 Singaporeans to enjoy government subsidies when they visit private GPs and/or dentists.

Singapore will continue to play the role of regional medical hub, having medical tourists from around the world coming to Singapore for treatment. Thailand and Malaysia have been sparing no efforts to attract more medical tourists to their shores, but Singapore will continue to be the destination of choice for higher-value complex procedures.

In light of the weak economic outlook, customers will be looking for value at both the corporate and individual levels. At Healthway Medical, we must offer superior service and value to our corporate clients to help them contain their healthcare expenditure, such as introducing preventive programmes such as vaccination and health education talks to their employees. For our private patients, we must ensure that our service delivery offers them value for their money. The healthcare market is still growing, customers just want to make
sure that their money are well spent and tend to shop around more in a weak economy.

Two challenges facing healthcare service providers are manpower and costs. The healthcare industry is short of human resources and the situation will get worse as the government tightens the supply of foreign workers. Public healthcare providers are raising their pay structure to attract and retain their staff, resulting in both labour shortage and cost escalation in the private sector. Two cost items which will continue to rise are rental and drugs.

Contributed by Lam Pin Woon, President & Executive Director of Healthway Medical Corporation Limited