Healthcare sector faces pressure from mature market and foreign competition

Local patients often choose longer waits or affordable options in Malaysia, CGS International says.

Healthcare services providers in Singapore have limited opportunities for organic growth due to mature market dynamics and competition from public healthcare institutions, CGS International (CGSI) said.

In its report, CGSI attributed the limited growth in Singapore’s healthcare sector to local patients often opting for longer waiting times for non-urgent procedures and health screening packages or seeking more affordable options in Malaysia. Rising healthcare costs have also discouraged foreign patients.

However, CGSI highlighted that Singapore's ability to provide complex procedures, such as proton beam therapy (PBT), and specialized sub-specialties continues to draw patients from across the region who can afford premium treatments.

It expects the healthcare sector to remain under pressure, with consolidation unlikely in the near term.

Among healthcare players, CGSI identified QNM as its top pick in the sector, citing early signs earnings recovery in 1H24 and the acquisition of a Singapore dental clinic.

RFMD, on the other hand, is expected to face continued difficulties with its China hospitals, as minimal reductions in losses during 1H24 and weak revenue momentum.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia