July 1st, 2020: Today we have reported only ONE case as positive Co-vid 19 after close to 3 and half months of Movement Control Order with its Recovery phase now.
Its a relieve to many stakeholders in businesses and to the citizens. The trauma of uncertainties that haunted all of us in the past few months finally has given us some relieve.
Is it still worrying?
We have learnt a lot from this pandemic but a lot of questions are still unanswered. Do we really understand the behaviour of this virus? We are worried of a second or third wave. Are our elderly safe from it? The question of anti-virals and vaccines still lingers.
The bigger worry is the economies of all industries. Some consolation it’s global but that does not mean anything to an individual. Economic stimulus packages will soon end from the government but its still not certain if individual income will return back to normal.
Healthcare Industry
The main battle was to get the curve flattened. Most countries did it successfully and Malaysia was named as one of the best in the world. We have to maintain this further. The Ministry of Health under the guidance of the Director General of Health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah did a great job and it was not easy as there were many factors involved.
Private Healthcare particularly the private hospitals are happy that the pandemic is brought to good control at this moment. More economies have been opened and from today even the leisure and entertainment industry has been given the mandate to operate but with Standard Operating Procedures.
Private healthcare will regain its momentum in the next few months. Patients have slowly returned back for treatment with some confidence. However there is still some scepticism about visiting the doctor. Our general advice is not to cease any follow ups and early consultation is still a priority to avoid potential health complications
Safety in Hospitals & Clinics
Hospitals and clinics have very strict standard operating procedures as it involves risk not just to patients but also to the healthcare workers. Patients are screened in detail and Co-Vid 19 testing is conducted before any procedure and admission. This is to safe guard everyone. We make sure that the environment is safe during our process of treating patients.
Future
The next 6 months will be crucial for everyone in all countries.
First step is to make sure there is no emergence of new clusters of patients. Second step is to start the economy as we need to recover from our lost.
Looking at the positive side, it was a good re-start as some of our lifestyles and living norms were getting into an exhaustion. But for those who have been pushed into zero income, its important to get the right gears engaged to move forward. Innovative methods of being more efficient and productive will be the way.
There are some private healthcare facilities in Malaysia that has been largely depended to medical tourist. We hope our neighbouring countries will soon control their pandemic status so that our borders can be further relaxed for medical tourist.
The numbers of medical tourist eager to get into Malaysia is a testimony that we are of good standard and our pricing is indeed affordable and reasonable. This shows we are at the right competitive edge.
Has Co-Vid 19 proved this to us? The answer is yes as we can feel the anxiousness of the medical tourist who can not wait to be back here.
Lets hope the second half of 2020 brings in a total opposite effect of the first half.
