THERE is a good reason why after starting off with daily flights from Kuching to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, the next destination for the Sarawak-owned AirBorneo is Jakarta.
Although AirAsia now flies daily between Kuching and Jakarta, AirBorneo is positioning itself as a premium carrier.
The existing Kuching-Jakarta flights are popular and it is not unusual to see at least a few passengers needing wheelchairs to board and disembark on each flight.
Kuching has successfully tapped into the lucrative Indonesian medical tourism market and the direct flight from Jakarta takes only 1½ hours, making the Sarawak capital the nearest Malaysian city to the Indonesian capital.
The private hospitals in Kuching have for some time already made a name for themselves
with residents from West Kalimantan, and it is believed that Kuching's reputation for reasonably affordable and quality medical care had mostly spread by word-of-mouth to Jakarta residents, from kith and kin in the Borneo province bordering Sarawak.
Such Indonesian medical tourists to Kuching will be even more spoilt for choice as at least two new hospitals are currently under construction.
The 200-bed Gleneagles Hospital Kuching will open in 2028 while the Regency Specialist Hospital Kuching is a 300-bed facility scheduled to open in 2029.
Private healthcare in Kuching was pioneered by the Normah Medical Specialist Centre some 35 years ago.
Three state agencies — the Sarawak Economic Development Corporation, the Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation and the Sarawak Timber Industry Development Corporation — pooled resources to build this facility.
Since then, two more local private hospitals — Timberland Medical Centre and Borneo Medical Centre — have been set up and are expanding their facilities.
The KPJ Kuching Specialist Hospital rounds up the presently operating four private hospitals in Kuching.
Competition for market share can be expected to go up several notches once the two facilities under construction become operational. It will mean three homegrown establishments vying for clients against three others with international links.
Normah Medical Specialist Centre, especially, may be ripe for reviewing its setup.
There was a justification for state-led involvement in its establishment decades earlier when the market for private medical centres was untested.
There is less of a reason for it to invest in a new, planned facility if it involves more public funds.
In light of this increased competition, the hospital should re-examine its strategic position and consider how it will compete in the private healthcare industry of the future.
A comprehensive review of its comparative advantages, service offerings, technological capabilities and long-term growth prospects will be beneficial.
As Sarawak develops further, local demand for private health care can be expected to rise so as to avoid an unhealthy over-dependence on demand from across the border.
It is perhaps an opportune time as well for Normah Medical Specialist Centre and the other private hospitals to explore ways to up their game, such as gaining international accreditation in order to widen the pool of international patients.
The state still has a long way to go as its RM300 million medical tourism revenue a year is only a fraction of the reported RM3.5 billion annual revenue nationally and even pales in comparison with Penang's RM1.5 billion annual take.
* The writer views developments in the nation, region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching
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