Weak medical tourism hits RafflesMed Q1 revenue

Singapore

REFLECTING the tepid state of Singapore's medical tourism, private healthcare provider Raffles Medical Group registered a 1.7 per cent year-on-year dip to S$114.9 million in first-quarter revenue, with net profit up just marginally for the three months ended March 31, 2017.

In past quarters, medical tourists accounted for a third of the group's patients. This has now gone down to "20-odd per cent".

Loo Choon Yong, the group's executive chairman, said at a Monday briefing that the revenue fall was due to the effects of currency exchange.

"The economy has slowed down in the region and in Singapore, so fewer foreign patients are coming here. Our exchange rate is such that all of us have weakened against the US dollar, but…