HealthAbroad.net: Point of View

Came across this ABC News clip on youtube on the growth in medical tourism to low cost destinations across the world.

… if you get operated in India, according to South African medical consortium offering cut price operations in India.

Under this plan, the patient would be responsible for the travel costs and the scheme would ensure that the medical treatment would be continued in South Africa after the overseas trip. The consortium has tied up with medical practitioners in India after research showed that the cost of surgery being 33% cheaper in India.

On arrival in India, the patients would be chaperoned through immigration and taken to the hospital for medical checkups. A family member will also be accomodated free in the hospital’s hotel wing.

Still on South Africa, we have some statistics. Albeit old, they’re still a useful indication of the size of the market. “Although South Africa has not yet commissioned an in-depth, formal, independent study on the local Medical Tourism industry and its potential earnings, available statistics show that the country attracted 8,000 patients, generating ZAR 120 million during 2003, evidently showing that there is a market out there.” That’s about USD 16.5 million at 2003 rates.

These are pretty small numbers but it would be interesting to track the growth in this market. South Africa has a highly-acclaimed medical sector but the long distance from North America, Europe and Middle East makes it a difficult place to travel to.

See the full article here.

The same article also quotes research saying that 10 percent of patients in EU countries seek treatment abroad, with an annual spending of Euro 12 Billion. 10,000 patients in the USA seek treatment abroad - an annual spending of USD 4 Billion. 

In a bid to harness its latent potential and intensify its competitive muscle on the world stage, the South African medical tourism industry has recently constituted the Medical Tourism Services Association (MTSA). The body will serve to regulate, promote and market the industry.

Medical tourism is a relatively new phenomenon in South Africa (SA) but the country finds favour with many medical tourists due to cutting edge technology, highly skilled medical professionals, competitive prices and also its cultural affinity to the Western world. Not without reason is SA keen to dip its fingers into the honey pot that is the global medical tourism market currently valued at $ 40 Billion. The move to structure the industry is also necessitated by the stiff competition from Thailand and India, who have been at it for longer.

SA has a long legacy of medical innovation and world-class healthcare in leading medical technologies, expertise and value-for-money attracting foreign clients for a myriad of cosmetic, corrective, dental and other procedures. The country has also been successful at creating a well developed public and private hospital system and South African medical colleges have produced professionals whose qualifications and expertise are well recognised worldwide, (so much so that, SA is now battling brain drain).

Clearly, the benefits that might accrue through medical tourism cannot be seen in isolation, as they will be accompanied by a myriad of spin-off benefits for the entire SA economy. A win-win proposition but how it actually pans out remains to be seen.

According to Development Network Africa, a private economic and development consulting firm, South Africa is making moves to maximise the potential of its medical tourism industry. Much like a kid in a candy store- the country is reaching out to grab more with one hand while creating a defensive circle around its own possessions and assets- home-bred medical professionals in this case.

In the recent months, two developments have caught the attention of industry watchers. Firstly, two of SA’s largest health-care groups, Netcare and Mediclinic, concluded large accusations of hospitals in the UK and the Middle East. Secondly, the health minsiter of SA worried by the flight of home-bred medical professionals to foreign locations has announced plans to increase retention and crack down on the migration of foreign health professionals to SA to take over vacant spots.

As the article points out, “SA has a well-developed efficient and competitive health-care sector. It also has enviable climate, is in the same time zone as Europe, and presents an appealing and afforadable travel destination. This bodes well for health tourism, and the number of patients seking “surgical safaris” in SA has risen strongly over the last decade.”

However, survey data has shown that around 40% of the medical graduates leave the country once qualified. Even nurses are leaving in large numbers with the UK receiving 3000 applications for registration from South African nurses a year, second only to the Phillipines. This vaccum is filled by African doctors and nurses who lured by better incomes and a higher standard of living are flocking to SA.

To buck the trend, the government has adopted a two pronged approach. A cumpolsary community service programme, which requires all medical graduates to undertake a full year of service in public institutions, has been started and immigration and registration requirements for doctors from developed countries have been made extremely restrictive. Quite clearly, this is a regressive move as it stymies the growth of the private sector and constrains imports. More importanly, it does not address the underlying cause of the flow of doctors from the public sector to the private sector and from SA abroad.