Category Archives: Health /Medical Treatment For Overseas Treatment

Couple giving health tourism a good name

Fatemah Rajah and Sulleman Moreea, below.

Fatemah Rajah and Sulleman Moreea, below.

A medical couple from Yorkshire are dedicating any spare time they have when not saving lives in the county’s hospitals to helping others in developing countries. Catherine Scott meets them.

Most people with stressful jobs look forward to their annual holidays as a break from their daily routine, a chance to unwind and relax.

Not medical couple Drs Sulleman Moreea and Fatemah Rajah.

Instead of lying on a beach or touring Europe, these two dedicated doctors from West Park, Leeds spend the vast proportion of their annual leave helping others in developing countries,

Sulleman, a consultant at Bradford Royal Infirmary spends at least three-quarters of his annual leave either training doctors in his native Mauritius or helping to set up endoscopy units in St Lucia.

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Fatemah, a paediatric intensivist (a specialist in intensive care) with Sheffield Children’s Hospital’s EMBRACE team, spends her holidays volunteering for the International Child Heart Foundation. The foundation sends medics to different parts of the world to save lives and train people how to carry out heard surgery on children. Fatemah has been to Ecuador, Egypt and the Ukraine.

“It does mean we don’t see much of each other in the holidays,” says Sulleman. “What I do is nothing compared to what my wife does for charity.”

It was while on a rare holiday in St Lucia that Sulleman met a taxi driver who was to change his relationship with the island forever.

“It was a long journey and late at night as our plane had been delayed,” explains Sulleman.“I started asking him questions about the medical facilities in St Lucia.”

It turned out that the man was moonlighting as a taxi driver and he was in fact an IT consultant at a local hospital. Dr Moreea, a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist, learnt that St Jude’s Hospital, relied on both public money, private donations and the support of foreign doctors and nurses.

He requested a meeting with the medical director and chairman to ask what he could do to help. After being shown around the hospital, Sulleman was told it had no facilities for gastrointestinal endoscopy; the specialist medical equipment used to peer inside patients to examine and even treat diseases of the digestive tract.

He was already heavily involved in training doctors and developing endoscopy units in Mauritius after meeting the country’s Prime Minister a few years earlier.

“There are no medical schools in Mauritius and after my A-levels I got a scholarship to Leeds University where I have done all my studying, I love Yorkshire but I knew one day that I would give something back to my homeland,” says Sulleman.

He returns to Mauritius four times a year and has helped set up three endoscopy units, a fourth is planned, all in his own time and with his own money.

“When the Yorkshire Clinic was updating its endoscopy unit I asked if I could have the old equipment. When I went to Mauritius I realised they didn’t need the equipment but then I went to St Lucia and they did.”

He initially returned to St Lucia in August 2009, with £100,000 worth of equipment for St Jude’s Hospital, where he spent a week training doctors.

However, the entire unit burnt down ten days later in a fire which killed three staff. All medical equipment was lost.

“It was devastating,” he says.

Whilst preparations were being made for St Jude’s to be re-built, Dr Moreea sought donations from Pentax and Olympus, who donated equipment worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to the new unit whose plans are being overseen by his friend, Swiss architect, Oliver Zuber.

“This will ensure that the facilities are almost on a par with what we have in Bradford,” said Sulleman,who was then approached by Dr Lisa Charles, MD of the Victoria Hospital, in north St Lucia, who had heard about his work and invited him to set up a similar endoscopy unit there.

“This was the chance of a lifetime,” added Dr Moreea who has recently become a special adviser to St Lucia’s Chief Medical Officer and Minister for Health.

“To be able to bring new procedures to St Lucia from which patients would benefit was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

“My aim is to institute a culture of teaching, whereby people who have been trained will in turn pass on their knowledge to their juniors, as we do here in the UK.

“It is our duty as doctors to pass on knowledge and it does give you are great sense of satisfaction.

“It gives me enormous satisfaction to be able to help those less fortunate than us, here in the UK.”

A sentiment echoed by his wife: “Every time I come back to this country is makes me realise how lucky we are,” she says.

It was while training in Liverpool that Fatemah got involved with the International Child Heart Foundation.

“I had heard about a trip to Morocco with the Foundation and I really wanted to get involved.”

She now travels at least twice a year to a variety of different countries helping them establish children’s heart surgery programmes.

Without the teams work many of the children would not have survived.

Like her husband she doesn’t view what she does as exceptional.

“Someone has taken the time and money to train us to become doctors and it is our duty to pass on the knowledge we have learned to other, especially in countries less fortunate than our own,” she says.

“Working in these countries with less equipment makes me think on my feet and makes me a better doctor.”

Twitter@ypcscott

Foundation spreads care worldwide

In developing countries, congenital heart defects often go undiagnosed until the child begins turning blue and having difficulty eating.

A simple procedure performed by skilled surgeons could save many children. The challenge is to get skilled doctors to the children in time to save them.

The International Children’s Heart Foundation strives to correct this unfortunate situation by:

Providing direct care to as many children as possible in the short term,

Sending medications, surgical supplies and diagnostic equipment to medical facilities in developing countries;

Training surgeons and medical staff so they ultimately can provide care for their own people.

The foundation was founded 20 years ago by William M. Novick. As a trained and successful cardiac surgeon, he wanted to bring the resources and expertise of the developed world to the children in the developing nations. So he began to gather supplies and volunteers. In 1993, he made his first team trip to Zagreb, Croatia and operated on 13 children.

source: http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk / Yorkshire Post / Home> Health & Family / September 26th, 2013

Najib launches RM320m Parkcity Medical Centre

Malaysia has seen a 20 per cent growth in health tourism over the past 3 years, generating almost RM600 million in revenue last year, says Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Malaysia’s medical tourism succeeds because of effective government regulation and Japan is one of the countries which has shown great interest in our medical tourism industry, said the prime minister.

Najib officiated the RM320 million 300-bed Parkcity Medical Centre at Desa Park City today, a joint venture between Sime Darby Bhd and Australia’s Ramsay Healthcare.

Meanwhile Bernama reported, Najib said at the officiating ceremony, local healthcare service providers need to regularly reinvent themselves and create opportunities for doctors and nurses to work without unnecessary barriers to stay relevant in dynamic healthcare marketplace.

The Prime Minister said it was the role of these professionals to be the catalysts for improvement, whilst ensuring that the needs and quality of care of patients remain the primary consideration.

He noted that strategic alliances between healthcare service providers would help advance the industry through the adoption of best practices and cross border clinical collaboration.

“As borders between countries become blurred with international cooperation, the potential gains are immeasurable. I urge healthcare service providers to leave no stone unturned in pursuing this potential.

“Becoming a regional healthcare hub ultimately creates more job opportunities and wealth, which benefit the economy and country as a whole,” he said in his speech when openeing the ParkCity Medical Centre (PMC) and the unveiling of Ramsay Sime Darby Health Care (RSDHC) logo, at Desa Park City here, today.

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Najib also said the Sime Darby and Ramsay Healthcare partnership would further boost Malaysia’s aims to be a regional healthcare provider and provided a solid platform for expansion in the Asian healthcare sector.

Najib said the prospect of reversing the international brain drain of medical professionals through medical tourism was also very positive.

“Local healthcare providers should leverage all the advantages on offer such as the government’s support, political stability, accessible travel, innovative and pioneering forms of treatment, readily available information over the internet, as well as pristine tourist destinations,” he added. — BERNAMA

source: http://www.nst.com.my / New Straits Times / Home> Latest News / September 17th, 2013

DHCC receives delegation of 55 top travel agents from Eastern Europe to promote medical tourism in Dubai

Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) has received from a delegation of over 50 leading travel agents from across Eastern Europe.

The visit, organised by the Department of Tourism and Commercial Marketing, was aimed at promoting Dubai as a leading tourism destination, and an opportunity for both parties to discuss DHCC’s Medical Tourism strategy.

DHCC is an established, internationally recognised centre of healthcare excellence, and has a particular focus on improving education and research and promoting medical tourism. In 2012, Dubai welcomed over 101,000 visitors from Eastern Europe, and the visit provided an opportunity for DHCC to promote Dubai as a destination for medical tourism, as well as discuss ways to attract more visitors from Central and Eastern Europe.

During the visit, the delegates toured DHCC and were given a presentation on DHCC’s Medical Tourism initiatives at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Centre, the education and research arm of DHCC, to further understand the world-class facilities available to both local and international patients, which are highly regulated and comparable to international standards.

DHCC also invited a number of its leading medical institutions to network and discuss medical tourism with the delegates, and highlight the importance of the industry for the UAE. Alongside its wide range of medical services, DHCC provides a range of benefits for medical tourists including Medical Indemnity Insurance and agreements with hotels.

Speaking about the visit, Marwan Abedin, CEO DHCC said, �We are delighted to welcome the delegation to DHCC. DHCC has established itself as a world-class destination for medical tourism, and we want to see the continued growth of this thriving industry. We want to ensure DHCC grows to become one of the world’s leading major international medical tourism hubs catering for the medical needs and wellbeing of international patients.’ Dr Wajdi Al Daghma, MD Strategy and Business Development for DHCC said, �DHCC has witnessed unprecedented growth in the past decade and has seen the inclusion of a large number of new medical facilities and professionals. We are constantly expanding and improving our health services and Dubai has all of the right elements to attract foreign patients.’ WAM/MN

source: http://www.wam.org.ae / wam – Emirates News Agency / Wam Dubai / September 14th, 2013

Medical tourism picking up in S Gujarat

Surat :

Dr Harshad Joshi, a knee replacement surgeon, would be performing nearly 200 surgeries during November-December.

Around 70 per cent of his patients who would be operated upon during this period are non-resident Gujaratis (NRGs) from the USA, the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Specialized and planned surgeries have become a lucrative business for the city doctors. Also medical tourism is picking up in south Gujarat.

Five years ago, just 10 per cent of NRGs from south Gujarat used to plan medical treatment to coincide with visit to their native places. Now, this percentage has gone up to 60 per cent, medical fraternity sources said.

In south Gujarat, the peak months for the NRG visit are November, December, January and February. It is during this period that the doctors work overtime to attend to the huge number of patients coming for ophthalmology, knee and joint replacements and spine surgeries.

“A simple Lasik treatment that costs $ 3,000 abroad can be done here for Rs 25,000. With falling rupee, it is not only affordable but more than affordable for the NRGs,” said Dr Paresh Vaidya, ophthalmologist.

A simple knee-joint implant is available for Rs 90,000 in India as against $80000 in foreign countries. As a result, many NRG patients, who are without insurance in the USA and the UK, pre-plan their treatment during the visit to their home towns in India.

Dr Harshad Joshi, a knee-replacement expert, told TOI, “The treatment here is affordable. It is a huge saving for the NRGs. We have started receiving bookings from NRIs in South Africa and the UK.”

Cervical disc surgery is done in Surat for Rs 1.5 lakh. But, it costs nothing less than $10,000 abroad.

“The cases of NRGs coming to India for spinal surgeries have gone up. It is not as big compared to knee-replacement or eye surgery cases, but there has been a steady 10 per cent increase year-on-year basis,” said Dr KC Jain, a neuro-surgeon.

source:  http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Surat> Medical Tourism / by Himanshu Bhatt & Melvyn Reggie Thomas, TNN / September 13th, 2013

Foreign doctors get green light as Cyprus embraces medical tourism

Cyprus is hoping to lure tourists interested in affordable medical care

Cyprus is hoping to lure tourists interested in affordable medical care

Cyprus is hoping to lure tourists interested in affordable medical care and modern facilities as the island attempts to position itself as a hot-spot for foreign patients seeking procedures.

Last night the Ministry of Health granted temporary licenses to doctors from third countries who are interested in providing treatments and performing operations to foreign patients in Cyprus, provided that these medical treatments are not practiced by Cypriot doctors.

Deputy Government Spokesman Victoras Papadopoulos said that the Council of Ministers were informed about this decision, which has been taken in the framework of efforts to promote medical tourism in Cyprus.

He noted that licenses will be issued as long a certain preconditions set by the Medical Council are met.

Papadopoulos said that the Health Ministry and Cyprus Medical Association would have a constant cooperation so that Cypriot doctors can benefit from this plan, through their further training in operations and medical practices, which are not provided in Cyprus.

In June the Cyprus Tourism Organization and Cyprus Medical Association announced they were joining forces in order to promote the island as a medical tourist destination.

The CTO have said that medical tourism will improve Cyprus’ tourist product and will increase tourist arrivals.

source: http://www.famagusta-gazette.com / Famagusta Gazette /  News from Cyprus / Wednesday – September 04th, 2013