Bringing quality healthcare to areas that need it the most

Borneo Medical Centre (Miri) was recognised in this year’s Asian Healthcare Awards.

In Sarawak, the city of Miri has a population of approximately 400 thousand, only ranking behind Kuching by population. Despite this size, the city is home to only one government hospital and four private medical centres, posing a problem when it comes to the options and amount of medical care that can be provided to the community.

As a newly established centre in Sarawak’s resort city, Borneo Medical Centre (Miri) has worked towards providing emergency neurological and cardiology services as a priority to the local community since 2019. Their efforts helped the organisation to win the Public-private Healthcare Partnership of the Year - Malaysia Award at the 2023 Asian Healthcare Awards.

The awards programme recognises the initiatives and efforts of healthcare organisations in bringing quality healthcare to their patients and raising the industry standard, and Borneo Medical Centre’s establishment of their Miri site distinguishes themselves from their competition by bringing access to life-saving facilities and treatments for the residents of Miri, Sarawak.

Before Borneo Medical Centre came into Miri, the city had no coronary heart angiogram facility, meaning doctors cannot perform emergency PCI procedures. Seeing this gap in the community’s healthcare, an Angiogram Catheterization Laboratory was installed in the Miri site for a diagnostic coronary angiogram and percutaneous coronary intervention with stent and balloon facility, alongside the ensemble of skilful cardiologists that enabled the facility to be fully licensed by the end of 2020.

Neurosurgical care was also brought in, as a neurosurgical and spine surgeon was enlisted in 2019 along with the procurement of a Leica high-end microscope, Image Guided System, and Tumor Debulking Cusa System. In total, Borneo Medical Centre has invested over RM 15 million in neurosurgical and cardiology equipment for their Miri site.

Despite a large amount of investment, the organisation was able to run the medical centre in a cost-efficient manner in order to make the healthcare offerings affordable and accessible for the middle-class income group. Packages for the angiogram and cardiac screening are available for transparency and information symmetry.

On the financial side of providing care, a dedicated price committee working 24/7 reviews and approves emergency treatment cases without requiring deposit payments upfront, allowing consultants to attend to the patient’s needs in emergency conditions.

A public-private partnership (PPP) programme allows government hospital patients to receive free outsource emergency services such as percutaneous coronary angiograms in Borneo Medical Centre (Miri). With the addition of this programme, Borneo Medical Centre (Miri) ensured universal coverage for emergency cardiac service availability which is the primary mission for the establishment of the medical centre. 

Patients are selected by the government hospital’s physicians and a quota of five patients was initially given to the hospital but has been recently expanded to accommodate a patient load of seventeen patients in four months. This ensures universal coverage of cardiology services whilst optimising operating costs from suppliers and the volunteer community with special rates.