HealthAbroad.net: Point of View

An interview with Dr. Jason Yap on how and why Singapore is promoting medical tourism in a big way. Dr. Yap is the Director of Information Services of the Singapore Medicine section of the Singapore Tourism Board.

A few things to point out from the interview:

• in 2006, more than 400,000 patients came to Singapore with a majority from neighboring South East Asian countries and others from the Middle East, North America and Europe.

• Patients are seeking out Singapore for high end, complex and research driven elective surgeries such as pediatric luekemia, bone marrow transplants, cancer treatments in addition to the usual knee and hip replacements.

• Singapore is marginally more expensive than India but also benefits from having better infrastructure. A knee replacement which costs around $40,000 in the US, costs around $9000 in Singapore and around $6,000 in India.

p.s- Very informative blog as well.

With the National Health Service (NHS) in the doldrums, Brits are going abroad in large numbers for medical treatment. New figures put out by a research firm say that overseas trips for cosmetic surgery, operations and post-op relaxation are worth 60 million pounds per year. Furthermore, medical tourism enjoys the largest cut of UK spending on health breaks.

In addition, British holidaymakers splashed out around pounds 25 million last year on going abroad for yoga holidays, holistic healing, health farms beauty treatments and spa visits.

Spending rose to pounds 50 million for similar types of breaks taken within the UK.

According to the report, the entire market for health and wellness holidays, including overseas medical tourism, is set to increase as much as 150% by 2011. Up, up and awwaaaay!!

More on Argentina being a top destination for cut price good quality plastic surgery.

A breast implant surgery costs $2500 in Argentina whereas it can be three times as much in Los Angeles, Madrid or Paris. A high local demand for plastic surgery also means that the  doctors are well trained and competent. Even today, as much as 60 percent of all procedures are done on Argentinians.

Argentina’s stormed up the list of medical destinations after the peso was devalued in 2001 making travel and surgery a steal.

Read our previous posts on Argentina and plastic surgery here and here and also the one on Brazil.

Useful article on how Singapore has built its reputation as the top destination for medical tourism.

Singapore Medicine, Singapore Tourism Board-Healthcare Services director Dr. Jason Yap, attests, “International patients come to Singapore for many reasons like heart and brain surgery, health screening and sometimes cancer treatment.” Why? “Because we assure them of world-class health-care system that focuses on safety and excellence,” Yap explains.

The rise in medical tourism and the worldwide resurgence of spirituality and traditional healing has seen Ayurveda capture a significant piece of the medical tourism pie in India, CNN reports.

Ayurveda sessions, from a basic head massage to an intense detox scrub and wrap, that can last from 45 minutes to five-and-a-half hours and are priced at 950 rupees ($21) to 10,000 rupees.

Ayurveda products containing a combination of hearbs, spices, flowers and fruits such as saffron, basil and green apple generate a big chunk of the estimated $200 to $300 million alternative therapy market in India’s growing beauty industry.

As the West laps up Eastern philosophies and treatments, firms such as L’Oreal have also shown an interest in incorporating ayurvedic items in the product line.

As an ever growing number of foreign tourists flock to India for leisure, business or medicare, the country is grappling with the problem of a lack of star-category hotel rooms.

According to the Ministry of Tourism of the Government of India, the country has around 1.2 million hotel rooms of which only seven per cent, or about 80,000, are star category. In comparison, China has 10 times as many and the US 40 times as many hotel rooms.

The number of foreigners coming to India to avail quality, inexpensive treatment is rising. Revenue from medical tourism is expected to rise from $333 million at present to $2 billion by 2012.

With the number of foreign patients coming to India growing steadily, medical tourism is expected to contribute about 15% of corporate hospitals total earnings by 2009. Read here.

According to a CII study, more than 1.5 lakh foreign patients visited India for medical proce dures last year and the number is growing by 15% a year. The global world health travellers market is $40 billion and growing at over 15% year-on year.

At present, India’s medical tourism industry to be around $450 million, a report by FICCI and Ernst & Young said. A recent McKinsey study estimates In dia’s medical tourism industry could yield as much as $2.2 bil lion a year by 2012. Currently India’s total healthcare industry is about $17 billion and is grow ing at about 13% annually. 
 

According to the Spanish Plastic Surgery Association, Spaniards spend over €800 million a year on cosmetic procedures. The average spend per person last year was €2,000, compared to less than £120 in the UK.

Breast enhancements are the most popular, and over 30,000 implants were sold last year in the Spanish market. Around 20% of cosmetic surgery patients in Spain are men: they go for eyelid and abdominal surgery, and liposuction, which is also the second most popular operation with women.

India’s luxury ayurveda spas are a big draw for Western tourists. But the lure of the easy tourist $ has brought in hundreds of quack practitioners threatening the established players and the goodwill of the industry.  

The southern Indian state of Kerela is the home of ayurveda and untrained newcomers have mushroomed in the last few years. Giant billboards advertise miracle cures through ayurveda for as little as $50.

Kerala has been aggressively marketing ayurveda abroad over the past decade with roadshows in Europe and the Middle East, in its bid to position itself as a unique destination.

Almost 350 000 foreigners visited Kerala in 2005, where tourism is growing faster than anywhere else in the world, at 11 percent a year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. That raked in $1.7-billion of revenue.

Some 7000 private and 500 government clinics and hospitals provide the treatments today, as well as 59 accredited ayurvedic spa resorts, said Kerala’s Association of Ayurvedic Hospitals. But established resort owners say the accreditation procedures are not a guarantee of proper treatment.

My personal view is that there is some truth in this but it also represents the insecurities of the established operators towards increased competition and decreasing earnings.

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