Earlier this year, HealthAbroad.net interviewed Mr. Fredrik Öhrn, Division Manager of International Business of Phyathai Hospitals Group in Bangkok, Thailand. Mr. Öhrn also has extensive operative and strategic experience in the Swedish and Spanish healthcare sectors and now he helps develop the international profile of the Phyathai Group.

1. What growth do you foresee in the health care sector catering to foreign patients in Thailand, compared to other sectors of the economy, in the coming five years?

Over a five year period, Thailand’s Health Care sector catering to foreign patients should see significant growth. What that number will be exactly is a bit difficult to say at this point of time mainly because of the recent political turmoil in Thailand.

So for growth to take place, a few crucial things need to happen. The new government needs to organize itself, big hospitals need to maintain their high standards, keep hiring English speaking doctors and nurses, keep in tune with modern research and be able to prove that to foreign insurance companies, patients and colleagues around the world.

Thailand has a good chance of becoming a hub for Medical Tourism. In Bangkok, there are well organized hospitals with a large capacity and well trained professionals. In addition to this, Thailand is a beautiful country to visit even if you don’t come here merely for the medical services.

2. What are your target foreign markets?

It is very important to realize that people from different countries have different needs and sometimes this point is missed by medicare providers and agents. It is also crucial to have a thorough understanding of the mentality and culture of the people you’re selling your services to.

Having spent most of my life in Scandinavia and in Europe, we focus primarily on the Scandinavian market and secondarily on the European market, outside of Scandinavia.

3. What are treatments for which you expect the strongest demand from medical tourists from Sweden coming to Thailand?

Swedes or Scandinavians, for the most part will travel to Thailand for cosmetic treatments and plastic surgery. But as the well traveled generations are growing older, non-elective surgery for knee injuries as well as hip replacements and shoulder surgeries will grow.

4. What are your marketing strategies going forward?

Our main focus is on Business to Business marketing. So, we are working towards developing partnerships with other companies, doctors and travel agencies in Europe as well as in other parts of the world.

With many prospective patients using the internet to do their research, we will also market our services over the internet, which is a very important tool for bridging the geographical and cultural gaps between client and service provider.

5. What is Thailand's and your agency's (SeaPR's) strongest attraction (or strongest selling point) to medical tourists from Sweden?

The strongest attraction is that I bring an insiders experience to SEA PR & Communications, with my background as a nurse and having trained in Sweden and Spain. In addition, I have extensive knowledge of the Bangkok market, which enables our agency to be a perfect bridge between our clients and the health-care providers.

You might be a famous person that wants secrecy; you may want to be treated outside the city, away from the hectic traffic but your partner wants to have the possibility to go shopping in Bangkok; or you have already picked a hotel and want to find out where to get treated nearby, since you already are in town. We cater to the needs of our clients, confident in the knowledge that we can provide them with various options for treatment and the right environment.

6. What are the pressures going forward?

The greatest pressure is to get the message out that healthcare in Bangkok is not cheap per se, but high quality health care at reasonable price levels, and there are no wait times. Healthcare in Thailand is cheaper than in the West but sometimes, and incorrectly so, cheaper is mistaken for poor quality, which is not the case at all.

Another problem is that some Bangkok hospitals forget to focus on the little things, things that can be crucial to foreign patients. Foreign patients are already under a lot of pressure traveling to another country for healthcare, so they need to feel at ease and at home from the moment they walk through the main entrance all the way to the examination room. This means a clean lobby area, nice hallways that are not crowded with people, a clean environment and well trained personnel that know other languages than Thai and are not afraid to use them.

7. If there was one thing that you could change to make Thailand an even better place for medical tourism, what would it be?

I think that the one thing I would like to change about Thailand, and especially Bangkok, is the traffic situation. The traffic is almost always very hectic; it can be disturbing at times and also dangerous. But the Thais have organized it well and there are good and safe means of transportation available, whether you choose private transportation or the mass transit system.

8. If there is one thing that would encourage more patients from Sweden or other parts of Scandinavia to consider medical treatment abroad, what would that be?

I think that if Scandinavians realized how good the quality of care is in Bangkok and also how competent and effective the doctors are, a larger number of patients would consider Bangkok to be their destination for health.

 

Fredrik is of Swedish origin, living in Bangkok, Thailand since January 2006, due to his wife's posting there as a Diplomat. Having run his own business researching the health care sector in Thailand for a year, in November of 2006 he got an offer from Phyathai Hospitals Group to be their Division Manager of International Business.

Proudly joining the group in January of 2007, bringing extensive experience from the Swedish and Spanish healthcare sectors - both operatively and strategically - he now develops the Group's international profile.