New hospital to boost KPJ Healthcare's performance

KUALA LUMPUR: KPJ Healthcare Bhd is confident of maintaining a solid performance for financial year 2023 (FY2023) amid a bullish outlook for the sector after recording its best-ever results last year.

Its first quarter (1Q FY2023) results, also the highest ever recorded, suggest that continuing growth awaits the group, especially with surging medical tourism demand and recovery in elective treatments.

Its medical tourism patients are largely from Indonesia, the Middle East and Indo-China.

The group also sees potential in geriatric care. Its chairman Datuk Md Arif Mahmood told a virtual press conference after its 30th annual general meeting that the new KPJ Damansara Specialist Hospital 2 (DSH2) will double bed capacity from 60 to 120.

With 29 hospitals and 1,500 consultants in all disciplines, he said the group has the competitive advantage.

Meanwhile, officer in charge Norhaizam Mohammad said the group expects EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) for KPJ Perlis and KPJ Miri to be positive next year with both hospitals in the black over the next two years.

"The plan is to have maximum bed capacity of about 30 to 40 beds and we need to bring in more doctors because both hospitals at this moment have only about nine to 10 specialists.

"Both towns are located near tourist areas. Miri is near Brunei and and patients from Kalimantan and Jakarta are able to fly directly to Brunei’s international airport,” she added.

KPJ’s net profit surged to RM171.99 million for FY2022 from RM54.79 million from a year ago. Revenue rose 12.74 per cent to RM2.92 billion from RM2.59 billion previously due to growing hospital activities, as evidenced by a rise in patient visits which grew to 3.26 million from 2.98 million in FY2021 and higher bed occupancy rate of 58 per cent versus 43 per cent in FY2021. - Bernama