Singapore: Mahkota Medical Center, Malaysia's largest private hospital, recently announced plans to build a new 500-bed hospital with an investment of nearly RM 200 million. Mahkota expects that the new hospital should be ready for operation in two to four years.

Mahkota's CEO, Mr Stanley Lam, said, "With increasing demand, Malaysia needs more specialty hospitals that can cater to the growth in number of patients every year. Currently, we have around 3, 00,000 patients visiting us annually of which nearly 30 percent are foreigners."

He added that with increase in medical tourism in Malaysia, there has been a high demand for specialized medical services and good quality hospitals in the country. "Every year our patient numbers increase by more than six per cent. There has been an increase in medical tourism in Malaysia, which can provide equally good medical treatment at a fraction of cost compared to Singapore."