29-Aug-16 Healthcare costs in Malaysia have crept up as much as 15% annually over the past three years. The depreciation of the Ringgit is partly to blame for the increasingly expensive medical bills. Longer queues in public hospitals, while the number of patients at private hospitals has dropped 20%, expose the structural problem of the healthcare system. [image: The Edge Markets / Malaysia Health Ministry / World Bank]

25-Aug-16 India's Manipal Health Enterprises aims to build more hospitals in the next five years in a move to expand and strengthen its healthcare business as a recognised medical excellence brand in Malaysia. [image: MHE]

25-Aug-16 Elderly healthcare costs in Singapore are projected to rise tenfold over the next 15 years to more than USD49 bn annually. This means an average of USD37,427 will be spent on healthcare for each elderly person by 2030, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region, just ahead of Australia. [image: Tiffany Goh / The Straits Times]

22-Aug-16 Ho Chi Minh City plans to set up emergency aid stations to provide first aid more effectively. The health department has proposed cooperation with an Australian university to train paramedics to man the 25 planned stations. The health department said setting up such centres is appropriate for a city prone to traffic jams. [image: An Bang]

19-Aug-16 To treat cancers Singapore is investing close to SGD100 mn on a proton beam therapy system which causes much less damage to healthy tissue than current radiation therapy. With about three in five cancer patients requiring radiation, the National Cancer Centre Singapore has been studying the technology for a decade, but cost and size have been major inhibitors. [image: Tiffany Goh / The Straits Times]