KPJ Healthcare Berhad

KPJ to build 5 more hospitals to meet needs

KUALA LUMPUR KPJ Healthcare will build five hospitals in the next three years to address medical needs and expand its healthcare travel business.

KUALA LUMPUR KPJ Healthcare will build five hospitals in the next three years to address medical needs and expand its healthcare travel business.

Its managing director Datin Paduka Siti Sa'diah Sheikh Bakir said the projects, which are part of the government's Economic Transformations Programme (ETP), will cost RM763 million and create 3,160 jobs by 2020.

"We want to expand our facilities to make Malaysia a medical hub regionally and in the world. It will benefit the country," Siti Sa'diah said after the announcement of 13 new ETP projects here by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday.

The five hospitals - KPJ Klang Specialist Hospital, Sabah Medical Centre, Pasir Gudang Specialist Hospital, KPJ Pahang Specialist Hospital and Datuk Oon International Specialist Hospital - will have a total of 822 beds once completed.

KPJ hopes to expand its healthcare travel business by allocating 25 per cent of its beds at each hospital, up from the present 15 per cent, to healthcare medical.

Siti Sa'diah said tapping that sector would not only create new job opportunities but also skill enhancement and wealth to the country.

At present, KPJ serves two million patients a year at more than 20 hospitals nationwide and two more in Indonesia.

It currently has 800 medical specialists and more than 8,000 employees.