Victorian hospitals are likely to start treating more overseas medical tourists in coming years after the Victorian government announced a $17.8 million plan to boost health exports including medical services, research and workforce training.
The Global Health Melbourne Plan says Victoria should be marketing its public and private hospitals to fee-paying tourists to support ‘‘increased service delivery and to enable the purchase of the latest health technologies, such as new MRI scanners and genetic testing equipment that will benefit all Victorians’’.
It also says that, if public hospitals are meeting service targets, they may choose to pursue international opportunities ‘‘particularly in areas of specialised surgery and medical capability, which international health visitors may not have access to in their home countries’’.
The report, which highlights opportunities to export health system policy and design, construction and workforce training as well as medical conferences, comes after the Victorian Government approved a 60-bed private hospital within the new $1 billion Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, due to open at the end of next year.
Health Minister David Davis said allowing privately paying tourists to use Victoria’s public hospitals would not affect Australians’ access to them. ‘‘This would always be additive, it would always be additional capacity,’’ he said.
source: http://www.theage.com.au / The Age, Victoria / Home> Victoria / by Julia Medew, Health Editor / April 30th, 2014
