For medical tourism to be successful in T&T there is need for a change of attitude by the people who interact with tourists, when they enter T&T, beginning with immigration officers, Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan said yesterday.
Khan, who delivered the feature address at the U Health and Wellness Exposition at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, said: “In order to produce a product—medical tourism—you have to give that product the appeal that you are trying to attract. What is your target market? What do we have here in our niche that will attract that market to come here?
Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan, right, speaks with Sherine Mungal, managing director of U The Caribbean Health Digest, left, and Dr Thomas Kozlowski, senior consultant, Joint Commission International, at the U Health and Wellness Exposition at the Hyatt Regency, Port-of-Spain, yesterday. PHOTO: JEFF MAYERS
Khan said it makes no sense having a visitor experience hostile treatment before experiencing destination T&T, or the services offered within the country’s medical tourism sector.
The minister said hospitals need to get accredited to bring them up to a certain standard.
Khan said the proposed legislation will make the accreditation plan mandatory for all hospitals and programmes. Hospitals will have to be up to standard or they won’t be accredited, he added
The minister said T&T is looking at Colombia’s medical tourism model where that country sends an aircraft to pick up the patient.
source: http://www.guardian.co.tt / Guardian / Home / by Nadaleen Singh / Wednesday – April 01st, 2015
