Programmes
Specific implementation programmes are as follows:
Taiping as Bandar Warisan
Building top of mind awareness of Taiping as NCER’s heritage Icon and it’s association to 31 Malaysia Historical First.
Royal Belum Master Plan
Royal Belum – World’s oldest rainforest as top eco-tourism destination in the world.
Lembah Bujang – Sites of the Archeological Relics
Lembah Bujang as a historical site depicting Malaysia’s significance as a trading nation pre-dating Angkor Wat and Borobudur.
Alor Setar – Royal town of the 4th longest serving Monarch in the world
Alor Setar as a hub for NCER Agro-Tourism and Heritage tourism through achieving UNESCO Memorial of the world accreditation.
Kuala Kangsar – Royal Heritage Town & Southern Gateway to NCER
Kuala Kangsar as the Royal Heritage & Handicraft town, the Southern gateway to NCER.
Promote health tourism in NCER
In support of tourism strategic goal focusing on high spenders market (Medical tourists spends an average of USD362 per day, average traveller’s spend USD144 per day)
Upgrade/improve/provide tourist facilities
Serving baseline needs of more sophisticated present day tourists.
Developing New Tourist Destinations on the NCER Mainland
To complement Pulau Pinang and Langkawi and drive further growth in the NCER’s tourism sector, new tourist destinations on the mainland will be developed. The fundamental strategy for development will be to ensure that each destination has a critical mass of attractions, enabling tourists to stay for 4-7 days.
The identified destination is as follows:
- Lembah Bujang for eco-history tourism
Ensuring Consistent Supply of Quality Medical and Healthcar e Professionals
To support the growth of the medical tourism industry in the NCER, the Region requires a strong pipeline of quality medical and healthcare professionals.
A number of initiatives are planned:
- Evaluating fast-track licensing and flexibility in meeting Government service requirements for Malaysian doctors returning from overseas in key speciality areas
- Courting 3-4 nursing colleges through targeted incentives to secure a pipeline of nurses to hospitals and medical institutes in the NCER
- Allowing NCER hospitals and medical institutes to bring in foreign medical expertise and specialists from leading international medical institutions to work in teaching and R&D fields, such as clinical trials and trials of new treatment methods. To speed up the process of bringing in these specialists, the Ministry of Health and Malaysian Medical Council (MMC) will pre-qualify recognised institutions and accepted speciality areas. Fast-track processing of applications for work permits will also be provided.
Improving the Quality of Hospital Care by Encouraging Healthcare Facilities to Obtain Accreditation from the (US-based) Joint Commission International (JCI)
JCI accreditation is recognised worldwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organisation’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards. To earn and maintain the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval™, an organisation must undergo an on-site survey by a Joint Commission survey team at least once every 3 years. The JCI International Standards for Hospitals consist of 197 core standards that must be met to achieve accreditation, and 368 other standards that lead organisations to best-practice levels. These standards focus on aspects such as patient safety, physicians’ credentials, patient rights, hospital facilities, and policies and procedures of the organisation. To get accredited, a hospital will have to fully meet most of these requirements and at least partially meet the remaining ones1.
Currently there are no JCI-accredited private hospitals in Malaysia although a few are Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH) accredited. To position the NCER as a leading medical tourism hub, it is important that all private hospitals in the Region possess an internationally- recognised seal of quality to build trust and confidence amongst foreign patients. Accreditation also serves as a powerful marketing tool, ensuring that our private hospitals are on par with competing international hospitals in Singapore, Thailand and India.
As significant effort and some cost would be involved to obtain accreditation, the NCER implementation organisation will work with the Ministry of Health in disseminating know-how on some of the standards and practices that the hospitals would have to adopt. Additionally, a package of fiscal incentives will be given. This will include the availability of soft loans to upgrade facilities and tax deductions for accreditation costs and medical tourism promotion expenditure.