BRUNEI-MUARA

AFTER only being established for four years, the Brunei Neuroscience, Stroke and Rehabilitation Centre (BNSRC) has enormous potential to attract medical tourists, said Managing Director of Germany’s Krankenhaus Nordwest Hospital (KHNW).

Through His Majesty the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam’s vision to provide his citizens with world class medical and health services, the Jerudong Park Medical Centre (JPMC) and KHNW began a partnership in July 2010, to enable JPMC to set up a specialised stroke unit in Brunei.

To date, the centre has treated 2,500 stroke in-and-out patients.

KHNW Managing Director Tobias Gottschalk, currently in the Sultanate, told The Brunei Times yesterday he was really impressed by the speed of this development.

“In Germany, to establish something like this, due to our very complex regulations in healthcare system, would have taken 20 years. However, we got this up and running in four years in Brunei and this really impressed me deeply,’’ he said.

“It is a unique project and it is a good example of collaboration among two countries and for the establishment of telemedicine. It is one of the best examples we have in Germany. We have a congress in Germany where we have established a conference with our Minister of Economics and it is well regarded by politics as well,” he said.

He went on to say the collaboration is also a good example of how one hospital is able to transfer knowledge of certain fields of medicine to another country, and to have it established and have a sustainable effect.

One of the challenges, the managing director said, that it is pertinent to support the collaboration and keep the links close.

The Brunei Times