Category Archives: Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Medical tourism is a booming phenomenon in countries like India, Malaysia, Mexico, Israel, Singapore among others. This sector has shown immense potential in the last few years, and has been hailed as the biggest revenue raking factor for any country that is willing to relax its rules and policies making things easier for those who are visiting a country as a tourist who wants to fix a thing or two in his/her body.

Namaste India
With all its cultural contradictions, what makes an ancient country India a hot destination for medical tourists? It’s booming education sector, which produces doctors who are never in scarce, and the surge of multi-specialty hospitals which have the best of equipments, and of course India’s own pharma sector is ever expanding. Compared to west (especially the UK and USA) costs in India are never a prohibitive for someone who has to undergo a major surgery. An unlikely aspect which needs further regulation is that of donors, who are never in short supply. No waiting period makes things easier for an American or a European choose India over other countries.

And then for those in search of alternate medicines, India is a land of indigenous knowledge on herbs, spices, oils and the combination of these curing a lot of ailments which according to modern medicine would require intervention. Now, it’s not a bad idea to find some real time solution for that bad back, or that skull-numbing migraine while sipping on tender coconut water the serene backwaters of Kerala, with Yoga regimes thrown in, isn’t it?

Medical tourism in India has different shades to it. While considering modern medicine alone, given the fact that most people would rush to India in time for a surgery, the costs are to be taken into account. No matter how ‘courteous’ US has been with its healthcare bill, making health accessible to majority of the people in the US, the costs in India are still much cheaper. And the post-surgery care with medicines, just as good! Because, India has been increasingly adhering to international quality standards with ISO certification and regular auditing of the systems and medical records in hospitals suiting all budgets.
So, it’s a no surprise that the foreign tourists who choose India for orthopedic and cardiac surgeries rave about its seven star facilities in hospitals. The country has been surely putting its growing population to good use by training them in medical and paramedical jobs, with no dearth of caregivers in its hospitals.

How Big Can it Get?
The rising popularity of India turning into a hot medical tourism destination, with an average stay of a patient/tourist being 30 days and above, is in the statistics. According to Confederation of Indian Industries, 150,000 medical tourists visited India in 2005. This was despite little or no marketing efforts from the Indian government and hospitals. It was a purely driven by person-to-person recommendation of a particular hospital or facilities.

In 2008, the numbers had grown steadily, touching a 200,000 milestone of those many people having visited India for various surgeries. Soon, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) began to collate the data and declared 850,000 medical tourists had visited the country in 2011. Anticipation is that the numbers may well touch 3,200,000 by 2015. Majority of these tourists came to Indian shores seeking liver transplant, heart surgeries like bypass or pacemaker, bone marrow transplant, hip replacement, knee replacement, eye surgeries, etc. Indian expertise in conducting these surgeries with most advanced technology is at par or sometimes even beyond comparison with its American or European counterparts.

Business is not all that it matters for India as far as medical tourism is concerned. The country on one hand is tapping its potential for being a health destination among developed nations. And on the other, it is also using it for establishing values such as secularism too. Pediatric patients in need of good medical attention and their families cross borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan regularly, to be treated with equal amount of love, care and affection in Indian hospitals. Years ago, a Bangalore based hospital made headlines for treating a young Pakistani girl, and built quite a few bridges across hearts in both the countries.

The biggest beneficiary from all this is the average US/UK citizen who wants a surgery done within his affordability because in his own country, it would cost at least ten times more. While total addressable global health tourism is pitted at $150 billion, India so far has been able to access only about a billion or so. But these numbers are surely expected to grow in the coming days as the medical tourism is expected to grow at 30% annually till 2015. Beyond that, it will take sustained efforts and better marketing strategies for India to remain on the global health tourism market.

Image: Thinkstock

source: http://www.businessinsider.in / Business Insider India / Home> Destination / by Preetam Kaushik / March 14th, 2014

Thousands of Foreigners seek IVF and plastic surgery at Czech clinics

Prague :(ČTK)

Artificial fertilization and plastic surgery are the two most frequent types of care foreigners seek at Czech clinics, Ondřej Šebestík, from HealthCzech company, has told ČTK adding that this is mainly due to about half-costs and a comparable quality.

The “medical tourists” come mainly from Austria, Britain, Germany and Russia.

Šebestík said the foreign patients spend hundreds of millions of crowns in the Czech Republic annually.

“In 2012, the Czech Republic was the second-most sought destination of Britons’ medical tourism,” Šebestík said.

According to preliminary estimates, the number of foreign medical tourists further rose last year and the growing popularity of Czech clinics is confirmed by foreign surveys as well as the Czech clinics’ figures.

About 1,000 foreign patients spent over 65 million Kč in the Iscare clinical centre alone last year.

“Our center, focused on foreigners, particularly Germans, can confirm a growing interest in treatments in the Czech Republic,” its director František Lambert told ČTK.

He said the clients pay an average of 65,000 Kč per surgery. Combined plastic operations may even cost hundreds of thousands of crowns.

Czech legislation is “more flexible” particularly in the field of assisted reproduction. It enables the use of anonymously donated sperm and eggs.

“We estimate between 4,000 and 5,000 IVF cycles having been performed in foreign clients in the Czech Republic last year,” Oliver Nosek, executive of Eizell-spende IVF, said.

The center focuses on German medical tourists.

source: http://www.praguepost.com / Prague Post / Home> Czech New / by Czech News Agency / March 08th, 2014

Among the numerous reasons medical tourism in Costa Rica has grown significantly over the last few years, quality of care stands out as being among the most important. In the 21^stcentury, a handful of nations have consistently ranked among the top countries for health care in terms of quality and affordability, and Costa Rica is the most attractive destination for North American medical travelers due to a very important factor: JCI accreditation.

JCI stands for Joint Commission International , an organization dedicated to the evaluation and accreditation of health care facilities and practitioners around the world. According to JCI’s mission statement, this organization:

There are two major medical facilities in Costa Rica that proudly display JCI certification: CIMA Hospital and Clinica Bibilica . A third health care facility, Clinica Catolica, is going through the rigorous evaluation and accreditation process performed by JCI.

JCI evaluations focus on the well-being, convenience, comfort, and safety of the patient. Inpatient facilities in Costa Rica that receive this coveted accreditation excel in providing physical security to patients and their loved ones who come to visit them. The evaluation criteria extends to the medical equipment used, the quality of the nutritional services, amenities such as upscale accommodations , cable television, secure Wi-Fi connections, playrooms for children, and the experience of the medical staff. The fact that many physicians in Costa Rica travel to JCI hospitals abroad for medical and language training speaks volumes about the country as a health tourism destination .

The accreditation of a hospital by the JCI extends to the physicians and smaller medical centers affiliated with the institution; for example, the CIMA Hospital in Guanacaste would only work with outside cosmetic surgery centers that meet the JCI requirements and standards of care.

In essence, JCI accreditation puts Costa Rica’s accredited institutions on par with hospitals in the United States that have been properly certified by the Joint Commission U.S.A., which is JCI’s parent organization; some of these hospitals include: New York Presbyterian, University of California San Diego Health System, Holy Cross, Auburn Community Hospital, and many more.

Costa Rica is already ranked as a top retirement destination by various publications such as International Living, and some of the factors that support that ranking include quality and affordability of health care . Although retirement and travel for medical purposes are related activities, they are not precisely the same .

For many people, medical tourism is a more practical and dynamic decision than retiring overseas. In the end, quality and affordable health care is what really matters to medical travelers; to this end, health tourists should ask their providers for more information and details about what JCI accreditation means to them.

source: http://www.news.co.cr / Costa Rica News / Home> Costa Rica News / March 03rd, 2014