HealthAbroad.net: Point of View

Keen to promote the country as a destination for medical tourism, the Philippine Department of Tourism has unveiled plans to partner with local tour operators to come up with tour packages that would include treatment and check-ups in the itinerary of tourists. The price on offer would be cheaper than what’s offered by Thailand’s leading medical services provider.  

According to the president of the Philippine Hospital Association, Philippines can become a top destination for medical tourism contingent on hospitals improving their facilities.

India’s Health Minister has finally placed in the public domain, concerns over medical tourism overshadowing India’s creaky public health infratsructure and thus leaving needy Indian patients in the lurch. 

With medical tourism being one of the pillars of India’s “Incredible India” tourism campaign, the health official’s remarks at first seem incongrous with government policy. India is keenly sought out by medical tourists for its cheap medicare and ample choices for tourism. Many Western businesses are also actively considering medical outsourcing to cut down their costs. At present India earns anywhere between $500-800 million dollars through medical tourism but with the market growing at the rate of 17% per year, foreign patients are likely to spend about $2.5 billion on medical treatment in India alone by 2012.

But how does the Indian government and lawmakers reconcile this growth in revenue and status with the shabby and derelict public health system, whereby the India’s innumerable poor do not have access to basic health interventions crucial to saving lives of men, young women and many a newborn?    

Here are some good tips for those considering to go abroad for medical treatment.

Good research and adequate background checks will go a long way in ensuring that one receives top quality medical treatment at an affordable price. With so many hospitals, agencies and middlemen jumping onto the medical tourism bandwagon, it is very important that the prospective medical tourists is able to separate the bluster from the susbstance.