Singapore Hospitals Aim to Attract more Indonesians
13 August 2014 18:46 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As one of the most developed countries in Asia, Singapore has become one of the top healthcare destination. The country holds the sixth rank on WHO list of countries with the best healthcare system. Joycelyn Ling, the Chief Operating Officer of Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, explained that many Indonesians traveled to the country because of its state of the art medical technology.
According to Joycelyn, not only technology but medical talents are also important in earning the trust of international patients. "We have more than 500 active physicians, many of whom had been trained at top medical institutions around the world such as the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins," she said. "This gives us the ability to treat an extensive range of ailments."
Despite the country's strong exchange rate, hospitals in Singapore continue to attract patients from all over the world, including Indonesia, with complicated medical procedures that are hard to find in other countries. "We have achieved some of Singapore's important medical breakthroughs," Joycelyn added. She explained as an example that Mount Elizabeth was one of the first hospitals in the region that offered Trans-catheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI), which allows patient with heart problem to undergo a less invasive surgery.
Joycelyn said that 20 percent of all the patients in Mount Elizabeth Hospitals in Orchard and Novena were Indonesian, the second biggest group after Singaporean patients. With 35 years of experience, she said that the hospital would continue to provide the best healthcare services in the hope to attract more Indonesian patients.
AMANDA SIDDHARTA