Category Archives: Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment

As far back as 2008, BBC reported that many of Nigeria’s brightest scientists and innovators are being lured to the West with lucrative offers. More recently, in September 2013, allAfrica noted that Nigeria’s brain drain exacerbated so much that the country lost 227 doctors in 2012, in addition to 637 who left the nation in 2010.

This persistent brain drain problem, coupled with the lack of competent doctors and updated medical facilities has sent desperate Nigerian patients seeking cures to greener pastures – more specifically, India, where medical tourism thrives.

Exodus to India

In 2011, abdominal pains affecting Usman, a father of seven in Nigeria were so bad that he boarded a plane to Delhi after the painkillers initially prescribed by his local doctor did nothing to alleviate his suffering. In India, doctors told him that he was in dire need of a liver transplant. Usman is only one of over tens of thousands of so-called Nigerian medical tourists who make the frequent exodus to India.

Usman believes the lack of competent medical professionals at hospitals and other medical facilities is due to lack of initiative on his government’s part. Ministers mistakenly assume that these Nigerians are wealthy for seeking treatment outside of the country, but when the alternative is death, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Local Hospital Woes

Many medical facilities are seeing direct hits on their revenue and patient numbers as the medical tourism exodus – over 30,000 Nigerians have spent more than $1 billion travelling mostly to India – continues to pick up steam. The government’s solution is to launch a web-based directory listing the locations of the entire country’s medical facilities to combat the issue of empty hospitals and reverse the outward flow of patients. Doctors, however, believe this move will be to no avail and instead recommend improved facilities to instill better patient trust, as current rudimentary technologies and equipment are incapable of diagnosing more serious ailments.

Call for Private Healthcare Providers

While this investment in better equipment can be a partial solution to the problem of lower patient traffic, healthcare experts are calling on private healthcare providers and hospitals to take up the mantle to spur state medical facilities to compete against each other and ultimately improve in both technologies and competencies. After all, if Nigerians can afford the exorbitant travel costs to seek healthcare services outside the country’s borders, they can definitely afford the rates private healthcare professionals will charge.

Thus far, however, these recommendations have not been acted on and the exodus continues. More and more Nigerians continue to leave the country when their local hospitals fail to accurately diagnose and treat their illnesses.

This lack of state initiative to invest in the latest medical technologies and better patient care is sending worrying messages to the population. Healthcare costs have skyrocketed for Nigerians, as they immediately factor in flight and accommodation costs overseas. The local economy will also take a beating as more money leaves the country to fill India, and sometimes Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia’s coffers.

source: http://www.tourism-review.com / Tourism Review.com / Home> .TR News / January 13th, 2014

Emirates Airlines is said to fly in 1,500 medical tourists daily to Dubai airport before they take onward flights to destinations such as India, Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore. If Dubai can tap a share of such travellers, it has scope to be a destination for medical tourism, for which strategic initiatives have already been launched.

Emirates is easily the most impressive success story about Dubai; if there is anything more successful, it is perhaps Dubai itself. Or the equation could be one of symbiosis, where one contributes or even leads to the betterment of the other in a continuous process.

So, the role played by Emirates in making Dubai what it is today needs no further explanation. But an interesting part is that the airline has acted as a change agent in innumerable other ways and in other parts of the world. It has helped the world discover hitherto unknown destinations and also connect travellers from around the world to Dubai, either through direct connections or by virtue of the emirate’s hub status.

In its inevitable march towards becoming the world’s biggest airline by 2020, a landmark in the evolution of Dubai on account of the Expo, Emirates has most effectively utilised the emirate’s geographical advantage, which brings over a third of the world’s population within four hours’ flight and two-thirds within an eight-hour flight.

Emirates already operates over 3,200 flights per week to over 135 destinations in more than 75 countries and hopes to fly 70 million passengers in the year of the Expo, pressing into service more than 250 wide-body aircraft.

Emirates is already a major catalyst of globalisation in many ways. A top Indian healthcare industry official pointed out the other day that Emirates’ flights alone bring 100 medical tourists daily to the group’s hospitals in four metropolises.

A major one was announced last year to unify all related procedures in Dubai in collaboration with Dubai Health Authority, Dubai Healthcare City, General Directorate for Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) and Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing (DTCM), among others. The Authority seeks to identify gaps in services, building capacity and raise the level of investments in the sector, including participation by the private sector.

The introduction of a three-month medical tourist visa was another important step. The visa, extendable twice, up to nine consecutive months, could be a major incentive for foreign patients to seek treatment in Dubai and other emirates. Similarly, the introduction of short-stay visas for specialist doctors for even a day has made it easier for hospitals to bring experts for consultations and special procedures.

The Dubai Health Strategy 2013-25 incorporates a masterplan aligned with the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 to provide residents as well as visitors access to internationally recognised levels of healthcare and transform the emirate into a medical tourism hub.

The head of Dubai Health Authority (DHA) believes that by the end of the decade the number of medical tourists receiving treatment here will be in the millions annually. It estimates that their numbers to increase 10-15 per cent each year. About 15 per cent of patients in Dubai Healthcare City are already medical tourists. The City is planning to create new specialist centres to enhance the city’s appeal, while DHA has announced plans to build additional hospitals and clinics to strengthen healthcare delivery.

Dubai’s medical tourism plans are now expected to be calibrated with the Dubai Expo 2020 infrastructure development, which will further help position it as a medical tourism destination of some standing.

source: http://www.eturbonews.com / eTN Global Travel Industry News / Home> Middle East & Gulf / December 23rd, 2013