KPJ Healthcare Berhad

KPJ HEALTHCARE AIMS RM2 BILLION IN TURNOVER BY 2012

BERNAMA - Malaysia's largest private hospital group KPJ Healthcare Bhd aims to achieve an annual turnover of RM2 billion by 2012.

BUKIT MERTAJAM -- Malaysia's largest private hospital group KPJ Healthcare Bhd aims to achieve an annual turnover of RM2 billion by 2012.

Chairman Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim said the group was confident of achieving the target through its existing specialist hospital network and the services provided by several support companies within the group as well as opening new hospitals, takeover of other private hospitals already in operation and acquisition of sophisticated equipment.

KPJ Healthcare now runs 19 hospitals nationwide including the one officiated by Penang Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas in Bandar Perda here Monday.

It also has three hospitals overseas, namely in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking to reporters before ceremony, Ali said: "In 2007, KPJ Healthcare recorded a revenue of RM1.1 billion and now, it has reached RM1.4 billion. According to the plan, we are sure the RM2 billion target by 2012 can be achieved."

He said KPJ Healthcare started with its first hospital in Johor Baharu in 1981 with 12 specialists and it had since grown to have 700 specialists and more than 7,000 staff.

The opening of the new hospital in Bandar Perda, known as KPJ Penang, was aimed at providing specialist medical services to the local and nearby residents, he said.

Penang's position as among medical tourism destinations would also allow the hospital to provide services to foreigners who came to the state for medical purposes, he said.

"We have invested about RM80 million for Phase One of the new hospital including with the latest medical equipment like Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Computer Tomography Scanner and Catheterization Laboratory, and we plan to develop Phase Two in stages later," Ali said.

He said that in Phase One, the hospital that began its operation in August with 100 beds, would have the number of beds increased to 236 based on needs.

He said that before this, KPJ Healthcare had taken over a specialist hospital Bukit Mertajam and following the opening of KPJ Penang, the old hospital building would be turned into a nursing college.

KPJ Healthcare also did not neglect the poor, he said and added that the group had set up a network of Wakaf An-Nur clinics nationwide where patients were charged only RM5 for both treatment and medicine per visit.

Presently, there were nine such clinics and three more would be opened by yearend, he said.

"To date, more than 500,000 people have benefited from the services provided by the wakaf clinics and KPJ Healthcare is willing to open such clinics in Penang if it gets the cooperation from the Penang Islamic Religious Council," he said.

-- BERNAMA