HealthAbroad.net: Point of View

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.

A great article on how cheap airfares on low cost European airlines are encouraging people to criss cross the continent not only for cheap bachelor parties but also for cheaper medicare.  

Fares as low as 1 euro cent, or $0.013, plus tax, encourage workers to jump borders for jobs, pump up real estate prices in France and — to the horror of residents of towns newly served by the carriers — spur British bachelors to shop for cheap beer and strippers in Prague and Riga, Latvia.

No-frills airlines also let Europeans seek cut-rate health care in Malta, Poland and Spain.

An implant and crown that costs 2,500 Euros in the UK, costs 1,400 Euros in Poland. Southern Spain is also popular for British patients on the look out for cheaper plastic surgery and time on the beach.

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.

The Indian healthcare sector has taken another step towards quality control. Recently, five of the 36 applicant hospitals which applied for accredition from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care Organisations (NABH) were approved.

Launched in February 2006, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Organisations (NABH) under the aegis of the Quality Council of India is a first of its kind and promises to set standards for the industry.

Read here.

Reliance Health Venture, the health services arm of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, one India’s premier and most prominent business houses is planning a big splash in healthcare services including setting up four new hospitals and two medi-cities. The four hospitals will be setup in West Bengal, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai and the company will bid for the healthcare cities coming up in Udaipur and Jaipur, with a focus on medical tourism.

In Mumbai, Reliance Health Venture has already acquired a prominent hospital, which will be converted into a 650 bed super speciality hospital with six divisions. Land had been acuqired in West Bengal and Delhi to setup super speciality hospitals.

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

Already a popular sun and sand tourist spot for Europeans, Tunisia is striving to diversify its tourism industry by focusing on medical tourism and especially plastic surgery. With flying time being a criteria for reimbursement for many insurers in Europe, Tunisia being an hour’s flight away from Europe is ideally located to cash in. 

A breast operation that costs 20,000 British Pound in the UK costs about 8,500 Euros in Tunisia. However, the industry is still in its infancy. While some 100,000 people have plastic surgery in the UK each year, Tunisia drew only 500 tourists for surgery last year.

At the recently concluded Arab Health expo, medical clinics from Singapore made a strong pitch to Arab patients by unveiling a new treatment for cancer. Singapore is very popular with Arabs seeking medicare abroad and the city state received about 200 Arab patients in 2006, a 20 percent increase over 2005. In 2005, a total of 374,000 foreign patients came to Singapore, a 15 percent jump over 2004.

Singapore has build its reputation as a top healthcare destination by specializing in cutting edge technology and being at the forefront of scientific research and expert treatments in oncology, haematology, cardiology, and ophthalmology. The World Health Organization (WHO) rates Singapore’s health system the best in Asia and well ahead of Japan and the US.

With around 40 million uninsured Americans looking for cheap medicare and healthcare in Europe affected by high costs and long waiting periods, travel experts say that medical tourism will continue to be a popular trend in 2007. Read here.

Good blog by an intrepid German, now residing in Bali, on medical tourism to Asia and the slow decline of medicare in Europe.

…over the years of the last 2 decades - Europe lost its edge as a leading and competitive healthcare market. Too many beneficiaries but too few paying customers. Always make an even balance for everyone. Where is the grounds or basis for competition, or the means of offering the best possible solution for a competitive price? Value for money anyone? Somehow it got lost along the way.

The US have problems as well, although quite a bit different. The healthcare system is state of the art; the main problem is, most people can’t afford it and lot’s don’t even have a health insurance.

The writer also writes about his own experiences with medicare in Asia - Singapore and Thailand. Also watchout for the cost comparison for medical procedures in the US and India. Very useful.