This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 5, 2018 - November 11, 2018
Winner | Sunway Medical Centre | Sunway Bhd
When it comes to developing a township, a lot of forethought is required. Then, the developer needs to find the right people to bring the idea to fruition.
Bandar Sunway, which is developed by Sunway Bhd founder and chairman Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah, boasts a variety of residential, commercial, retail, entertainment and hospitality components.
As the population of the township grew, Cheah saw the need for a hospital and sought the help of Lau Beng Long, who later became the managing director of Sunway Healthcare Services.
“Tan Sri wanted to make the [Bandar Sunway] township complete, and what was missing then was a hospital. He also wanted to give back to society. That was how healthcare services in the township started,” says Lau, who has a Master’s in Healthcare Administration from the University of New South Wales. He possesses extensive experience in healthcare services, having managed Pantai Medical Centre before heading for Singapore to manage Mount Alvernia Hospital as well as set up Assisi Hospice.
In 1997, Lau returned to Malaysia and helped lay the foundation for Sunway Medical Centre, which opened in Nov 15, 1999. He left the hospital in 2002 to run his own healthcare consultancy company and travelled for work in Singapore, Indonesia and the Middle East. He returned to Sunway Medical Centre in 2011 on Cheah’s request to take it to the next level.
Thanks to Cheah’s vision for a sustainable township and Lau’s expertise, Sunway Medical Centre has been awarded the 2018 The Edge Malaysia Pioneer Development Award.
Setting up for the future
Today, Sunway Medical Centre comprises three towers — Tower A, Tower B and the newly opened Tower C — on 10.37 acres. Two more blocks have been planned, and when completed, the hospital will have more than 1,000 beds.
The three blocks of 8 to 10 storeys have 650 beds, 180 consultation suites, 12 operating theatres and two multi-storey car parks with 1,470 parking bays. There is also a convention hall, which is used for conferences, seminars and public forums.
“It is the only private hospital in the country with such a set-up. Our hall can seat up to 650 people theatre-style. The unique thing is that two of the operating theatres are linked to the convention centre. You can watch surgery being performed live and interact with the surgeons,” says Lau.
Plans for the new blocks are awaiting approval from the authorities. “Actually, half of a block, which is a car park, is already completed. An 11-storey tower will be coming up above this car park. The plan, which is subject to the Ministry of Health’s approval, is for another 400 beds and about 150 clinics,” says Lau.
“So, with the addition of 400 beds, there will be about 1,000 beds. For a normal private hospital, you don’t want 1,000 beds. Normally, it is smaller. But in our case, we are keen to do teaching and research as well as encourage our healthcare professionals — be they doctors, nurses or pharmacists — to be involved in teaching and research. So, you need that size.”
Sunway Medical Centre has applied to set up a teaching hospital and is optimistic that the approval will come in two to three years’ time.
The hospital is also planning to have aged care, assisted living and independent living units. “The idea, which is still in the planning stage and subject to approval, is to have hotel suites at the top 15 levels of a 30-storey block — Tower D. The suites will be used for eldercare, independent living and assisted living,” says Lau.
“We thought this is appropriate, catering for those in their 60s to 80s but otherwise quite healthy. Some may still go to work or run their business, but they live in a place where there is healthcare support.”
Lau says the hospital is collaborating with international institutions. There is the Harvard Medical School Southeast Asia Leadership Programme, which is designed to enable healthcare professionals and clinicians to provide quality healthcare. “The 12-month Harvard Medical School Southeast Asia Leadership Programme is conducted here and we are sponsoring three staff members.”
In addition, the medical centre is a regional site partner of Cambridge University’s clinical medicine faculty. “We have a 10-year collaboration with the university on improving our research centre for clinical trials. Also, it is its regional site lab and regional site partner, which means that if it is doing trials covering Eastern populations such as the Chinese, Indians and Malays, it will be done here,” Lau says.
Sunway Medical Centre is also upgrading its healthcare system and it hopes to go paperless soon. “We are in the process of rolling out the electronic medical record (EMR) system. It will be fully implemented in April next year. Then, doctors and nurses will use tablets, instead of having to write things down on paper, thus cutting down on errors,” he says.
All information from diagnostic and monitoring equipment will be fed into the EMR system, making it easier and faster for doctors and nurses to retrieve it.
Lau says the hospital is also investing in new equipment such as the Nemuri Scan hospital bed from Paramount — a well-known Japanese brand — that costs RM12,000 each. These beds are fitted with sensors that can detect the users’ movements. They are especially useful for post-surgery patients and the elderly to prevent unnecessary falls. At present, only the 250 rooms in Tower C have this bed.
“We are the first to have this bed in Malaysia and the first outside Japan,” Lau says, adding that, eventually, all the rooms in Sunway Medical Centre will have it.
There is also Portzo, a RM100,000 system that tracks and deploys porters to move patients around in the hospital. The first of its kind in Malaysia, the system was implemented this year.
To enhance the medical practice, the hospital is equipped with the Da Vinci Robotic System. This system features a multi-arm device that performs surgery, which is controlled by a doctor using a console.
For rehabilitation, there is Lokomat, a robotic device which is one of its kind in the private sector. “A patient recovering from a brain injury or spinal cord injury is strapped to this machine and it will move the patient’s body accordingly to strengthen the affected section or move it properly to help in the recovery process. There are games in the machine that help motivate the patient to accomplish certain tasks. This machine costs RM1.6 million,” says Lau.
Over the past few years, the hospital has spent RM10 million on upgrading its facilities, he says. “Not many hospitals are willing to invest because it costs a lot. And some of the equipment might not be used often. For us, not everything is about ROI (return on investment). If something is beneficial, we will acquire it so that we can give the best clinical outcome to our patients.”
He adds that the hospital hopes to perform kidney and liver transplants in the near future.
Medical tourism is a growing sector, says Lau, and Sunway Medical Centre is ready to capture a market share. Already about 10% of its patients are from overseas.
Six new hospitals are coming up in Sunway’s other townships around Malaysia. “The first one, with 240 beds, will be at Sunway Velocity in Cheras. It will open in the middle of next year,” says Lau.
“This will be followed by one in Seberang Jaya, [in Seberang Perai, Penang] with 250 beds. It will be developed in two phases. Work has begun and is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. This hospital will also have a nursing home.
“Then, we will have another in Kota Damansara, next to Sunway Nexus. This 250-bed hospital is expected to be ready by the middle of 2021.
“The next one will be in Tambun, Perak. It will have 200 beds as well as assisted living facilities and a nursing home.
“In Paya Terubong, Penang, we will have a 120-bed rehabilitation hospital. Penang may have many big hospitals but it lacks rehabilitation centres for stroke patients, heart patients and others. This is where we come in.
“We will also have a 300-bed hospital in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor.”
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