What Is Medical Tourism
Rising medical costs in developed countries
have forced thousands of people to seek medical treatment and surgeries in
other countries which have lower medical costs. Also, in countries where
medical standards are low, the rich will seek treatments in countries where
doctors and medical facilities are of higher standards. These patients are
called medical tourists and thus the medical tourism industry is born and is
growing rapidly.
Private health care in the
western countries are very expensive and for many ordinary people,
prohibitively so. Even common medical treatments like orthodontics and
dentistry are out of reach by some people and what more if more complicated
medical treatments like surgeries and major operations are sought?
Medical tourism in
Thailand
Many medical tourists while seeking
treatments in other countries combine their medical treatments with a holiday
vacation touring the country as well. In South East Asia, Singapore
and Thailand
are the countries that receive the bulk of medical tourists. Medical tourists
choose Singapore
because of its excellent hospitals and high standard of health care and Thailand
for its relatively less expensive medical costs as well as an excellent
country for tourists to visit.
Since the title of this article
is about medical tourism
in Thailand , then we will focus on Thailand.
The Thai medical profession is probably one of the most advanced in the region
and some actually go further to say that it may be on par or even better than
those in Singapore.
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Successive Thai governments have invested heavily in
ensuring the education and training Thai doctors receive is equal or better
than those offered anywhere else in the region. Many Thai doctors undertake
specialist training abroad such as in the United
States
or in Europe
to develop their medical skills further. Extensive investments have also been
made in equipment and medical facilities taking many top hospitals and clinics
in Thailand to world class standard.
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Thailand's medical tourists not
only come for surgery or medical treatments but also other elective treatments
such as cosmetic plastic surgeries like lasik laser eye surgery, liposuction
procedures, facelift and even sex change operation. Thailand is a very famous
destination for people opting for sex reassignment surgery.
The Kasikorn Research Centre
reported that almost 1.3 million foreigners visited Thai Hospitals in 2005,
generating revenue for these hospitals up to the tune of about 33 billion baht
(Thai currency). This means that each foreign patient spent about 25,800 baht
for medical services provided.
The Bumrungrad
Hospital
is perhaps the most aggressive hospital in attracting medical tourism in Thailand
and it regularly make
news in U.S.
television stations and in international magazines. Also the local English
press seems to have an article about the hospital every few weeks.
An article in Newsweek in
October 2006 reported that Bumrungrad hospital treated about 400,000 foreign
patients in the year 2005. If this hospital alone is able to treat so many
foreigners, what would the figure be if the figures of all the hospitals in Thailand
is to be combined?
So the Kingdom
of Thailand
is not only a favorite destination for tourists on holiday vacations but is
also attracting hordes of foreigners seeking medical treatments in the form of
medical tourism. - Medical
Tourism In Thailand was posted on 8th April 2008