KOTA KINABALU, Jan 28 — Khazanah Nasional Berhad’s healthcare unit Parkway Holdings Ltd will set up a RM200 million private hospital in Kota Kinabalu as part of its plans to expand its footprint in east Malaysia.The 200-bed tertiary-care Gleneagles Medical Centre Kota Kinabalu — Parkway’s first hospital in east Malaysia — will cater to the growing number of affluent residents in Kota Kinabalu, its surrounding areas and the Indonesian market.
Parkway CEO and managing director Dr Tan See Leng said the hospital will offer prevention, treatment and rehabilitation programmes aimed at addressing the “unabating” increase in lifestyle diseases arising from growing wealth in resource-rich Sabah.
He explained that the hospital will focus on treating cardiovascular, metabolic, orthopaedic, oncological and neurovascular diseases, in addition to providing general care.
“Quite a number of fairly complex cardiovascular procedures are some of the things that we hope to be able to bring to this particular hospital,” Dr Tan told The Malaysian Insider.
He hoped to eventually do “transplant-type” procedures at the hospital as well, subject to local regulations.
Dr Tan also said Gleneagles Medical Centre Kota Kinabalu was the first step in Parkway’s plan to increase its presence in east Malaysia in “hub-and-spoke” fashion.
“In the long-run... we want to be in Kuching, we want to be in Miri,” he said.
“As long as each city has a population that achieves a critical mass of close to about half a million people, we can put our footprint there.”
He expects the hospital to contribute strongly to overall medical tourism in Sabah by drawing cross-border clients from Indonesian cities like Balikpapan and Pontianak in Kalimantan.
He pointed out that a “significant number” of Indonesians already made use of Parkway’s healthcare services in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore.
Work on Gleneagles Medical Centre Kota Kinabalu, part of a RM500 million integrated mixed development located next to Sutera Harbour, will start in mid-2011 and is due to be completed by 2014.
Parkway will lease the hospital building from Jesselton Wellness, a joint venture between Riverson Corporation, Saham Murni and state investment authority Warisan Harta, which has been tasked to develop the medical tourism sector in Sabah.
Parkway will be responsible for all operations, profits and losses, training, renovations and upkeep while retaining a call option to buy the property from Jesselton Wellness after several years.
Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund bought up Parkway last July for US$3.3 billion (RM10.2 billion) in a furious bidding war with India’s Fortis Healthcare.
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