Category Archives: Travelling For Surgery Abroad / Medical Surgery Overseas

Dubai :

The opening of Shifa International Hospital’s (SIH), the representative office in Dubai will increase medical tourism for Pakistan by offering unique healthcare facilities run by professionals who have earned great respect in their respective medical fields.

This was stated by Javed Jalil Khattak, consul general of Pakistan who was the chief guest at the opening of the representative office in Oud Metha, Dubai on Saturday.

SIH, a reputable hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, has opened its representative office in Dubai to provide expatriates and other residents the healthcare facilities that have been addressing all major diseases through its team of specialist doctors and surgeons.

The team of doctors and consultants at the Dubai office will provide assistance to the patients in the fields of liver transplant services, kidney transplant, bone marrow transplant, cardiac services and total knee and hip bone replacement.

Khattak lauded the service of SIH in the country’s healthcare field and said that the opening of this office will not only increase medical tourism but also further strengthen the relationship between the two countries. “The medical experts from the UAE and Pakistan will have the chance to exchange their expertise in their respective fields,” he added.

He pointed that they will encourage other countries’ major health institutions to set up such offices in the UAE to benefit the community members as well as other expatriates who seek affordable medical treatment.

Dr Mian Amjad Sohail, director, Medical Services and consultant physician, has highlighted that the services of the SIH in Pakistan have earned during the last 20 years accolades for conducting unique surgeries such as liver transplantation and others.

“The SIH in Islamabad has become a major medical destination for people from all over the country, as we have set up two branches in Faisalabad and Peshawar while the tele-medicine service covering a large part of the country offers healthcare facilities to the patients and professionals in 10 major categories,” he added.

The SIH has 500 beds, five major operation theatres and it has also set up five academic institutes to enhance academic professionalism for doctors as well as the paramedical staff.

Mehmood Mirza, strategic manager, said that the hospital has been operating as self-sustainable, as patients are being treated through the support of Shifa Foundation Trust and other partner charity organisations.

Syed Zeeshan Hussain, representative of Dubai office while talking to The Gulf Today said that those who seek treatment in transplantation will be offered a complete package with travelling and accommodation facilities besides consultation on their medical needs.

By Kerri Gooding

Barbados has received high accolades for its work in the area of ophthalmology.

Furthermore, as a country with modernised facilities for eye care, the Minister of Health believes this can be one area exploited in medical tourism.

He said, “I was speaking only recently to the question of medical tourism for instance, and this is a potential which we want to take greater advantage of, and I would believe that eye surgery is an area where we can also look at developing a reasonable medical tourism business for Barbados.”

At the fourth Annual Ophthalmology Subspecialty Conference held at Radisson Aquatica, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto and Ophthalmologist Dr. Shaun Singer said, “From what I understand the technology here is pretty good. I have had the opportunity to interact with some of my Caribbean colleagues and it sounds like they are really quite advance in many ways.”

Against this background, Minister Boyce said, “I think that the Ministry of Health really looks forward to partnering with you, the professionals, in bringing this regional business to our shores. And if there is anything at all that we can do at the Ministry to facilitate this activity, well then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.”

He asserted that as “the Lion’s Eye Care Centre, which is equipped with ultra-modern state-of-the-art ophthalmology equipment to support the various ophthalmologic interventions”, becomes fully operational, the entire Caribbean can be a target market.

Furthermore, he promised that the other two Eye Theatres in the suite of three, located upstairs in the Centre, will be operational by the end of the financial year.

The Minister also stressed that, “The full operation of the three theatres can provide greater capacity and even attract more clients from within the Caribbean region enhancing opportunities for significant revenue collection at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.”

He told the ophthalmologists and optometrists from across the region, Amsterdam, Canada and the United States, “certainly we look forward to you joining with us and really rolling out many, many opportunities like this for Barbados”.

Furthermore, Boyce incentivised the practitioners to work with the ministeries, not only the Health Ministry, but others impacted such as the Ministry of Finance, stating, “I know we like to access duty-free status on a lot of our expensive equipment, and these things can be worked on, as we try to develop this business in Barbados and add to our potential for earning very much needed foreign exchange.”

Additionally, on the local front, he said, “These theatres will substantially reduce the current waiting lists at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for eye surgery.”

source: http://www.barbadosadvocate.com / The Barbados Advocate / Home> Top News> Local / by Kerri Gooding / February 24th, 2014

Tehran, Iran :

Thanks to its geographical position, the conditions in neighbouring countries, economically reasonable prices and advanced medical facilities, Iran is gradually becoming a destination for Islamic and regional medical tourists. Hospitals in Iranian cities offer medical and health care services for foreign medical tourists. Medical services in Iran are comparable with those offered in advanced countries.

Geographical closeness and cultural and religious similarities have turned Iran into one of the best and most economically reasonable destinations for the Islamic world and regional countries for health tourism. Iran has a highly educated workforce and is a local leader in scientific and health development. Iran is one of the top five countries in the world in biotech and nine out of 15 high usage biotech molecules are produced in Iran.

Image via Reuters/IRNA

So Iran has a great opportunity to attract medical tourists of Islamic and regional countries. The existence of mineral fountains in many parts of the country, targets one market. Other markets include fertility treatment, stem cell treatment, dialysis, heart surgery, cosmetic surgery, and eye surgery. It also produces unique medicines such as the anti-AIDS drug IMOD, and other high-tech drugs.

The foreign medical tourists can be sub-divided in two groups. The first group is those who travel from advanced countries to other parts of the world seeking high-level medical service at considerably lower prices. The other type of medical tourists are those who come from less advanced and less developed countries where the medical services are not satisfactory and Iran can offer them greater health services at very reasonable prices.

30,000 medical tourists enter Iran annually; there are also some 200,000 health, wellness and spa tourists. The Health Tourism Committee sees the neighbouring countries as achievable target markets. Iran has already produced rules and regulations for tourist health care service centers so that hospitals and clinics that want to offer health tourism services to foreign citizens need to acquire licenses from both the Ministry of Health and Iranian Tourism Organisation.

Offering health service training to employees of tourism agencies and opening international patients’ wards at the hospitals are among the other already adopted measures by the Health, Remedy and Medical Training Ministry. Iranian hospitals that hold a medical tourism license from the Ministry of Health arrange airport transfers as well as accommodation. In addition, a nurse can be assigned to each patient.

In addition to the GCC, many patients come from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and India. Iranian ophthalmologists are renowned throughout the region; we also have specialty services in cardiology, kidney transplants, urology and general surgery. Iran attracts patients from neighbouring states mostly for transplants, ophthalmology, orthopedics and dentistry. The reasonable cost of medical treatment in Iran compared to Europe and the high quality of medical facilities are important factors for attracting foreign patients to Iran. In addition, Iran has highly experienced and professional doctors.

Based on studies conducted by Iran tourism organisation ICHHTO-Iraq, Afghanistan, Persian Gulf states, Central Asian nations and Iranians residing abroad are the main targets. ICHHTO provides travel agencies active in health tourism with special facilities such as a pavilion for them in overseas fairs. ICHHTO has also specified certain provinces for health tourism with the co-operation of the Ministry of Health:

— Tehran province for treating tuberculosis and lung disorders.

— Khorasan Razavi for ophthalmology, skin care, heart surgery and orthopedics.

— Fars for liver, kidney and marrow transplants.

— Yazd for treating infertility.

— Qom for its sun and desert potential.

— Hamedan, Ilam and Zanjan as centres of herbal medicine.

Medical treatment in Iran is safer, more knowledge-based and cheaper. Until 8 years ago, many Iranians travelled abroad to receive medical treatment, while now we are medical tourists. Iran has taken great strides in science and technology, particularly in medical and medicinal fields, in recent years.

source: http://www.eturbonews.com / eTN Global Travel Industry News / Tehran – Iran / February 11th, 2014

A growing number of medical tourists are flying into Australia to take advantage of hi-tech healthcare.

Over the last decade Australians have been heading overseas in droves, to places like Thailand, India, South Korea and Malaysia for medical treatment.

It’s often cheaper, and patients can combine a holiday with plastic surgery or dental work.

But as Australians fly out, a growing number of medical tourists are flying in — from New Zealand, the United States and increasingly from Asia.

Professor John Catford is medical director at Epworth, the largest private hospital group in Australia’s southern state of Victoria.

He says there’s “a burgeoning middle class” in Southeast Asia.

“Tens of millions of people actually for the first time having resources they can use to improve their well-being,” he told Australia Network’s Newsline.

Epworth looks after about 600 international patients every year from over 30 different countries including the Pacific Rim, Singapore and Indonesia.

It is Australia’s high quality, hi-tech healthcare which is most in demand — including robotic surgery, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatments and cancer care.

It is difficult to assess just how many patients actually travel to Melbourne specifically for treatment, but Professor Catford believes the numbers are growing and the economic potential could be enormous.

“If you think of international education, how important that is to the Australian economy, in Victoria it’s the number one export, in Australia it’s the third leading export. I think international healthcare could rival that in a decade or two.”

In 2011 Australia’s Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to conduct a study on Australia’s viability as a destination for medical tourism.

Lynne Pezzullo, a director and lead partner of health economics and social policy at Deloitte Access Economics, was the lead author.

“We’ve got over 10,000 people coming to Australia for medical tourism. There are though 5.5 million tourists a year in Australia so that only represents 0.23 per cent of our total tourist base. So clearly there would be a lot of work to do to expand that in to a really sizeable market,” Ms Pezzullo said.

State government push

The Victorian State Government, in particular, is keen to market Melbourne as a healthcare destination.

“We see inbound tourism of that type as just one part of a broader health export strategy that the state is developing and that would include conferences and would include inbound research support and inbound investment,” Victorian Health Minister David Davis said.

Professor John Catford says red tape could obstruct those seeking to take advantage of Australia’s high quality healthcare.

“We need a supportive government framework that actually encourages it and actually sorts out particular barriers or obstacles. A typical one would be visas so people can come in easily, with their families support, to receive medical care,” he said.

Capacity and superbug concerns

However Steve Hambleton, the President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), says it would be a mistake to grow the industry too quickly.

“It is entirely appropriate that a first world country should be thinking about exporting expertise just like this but we have a problem here about training the next generation of doctors for our own domestic needs and when we have surplus capacity is when we should be looking overseas,” he said.

While the growth of medical tourism in Australia would bring with it obvious financial benefits, for public hospitals the challenge will be ensuring that with that influx of wealthy international private patients there’d be no reduction in the level of service and quality of care available for local public patients.

That’s not something the Victorian Health Minister is worried about.

“I think what will be seen is greater public capacity because if you’ve got additional revenue flows coming into our health system in Victoria that can help fund additional capacity and also fund the additional research streams that are very important,” David Davis said.

The AMA says there’s also a risk that medical tourists could bring with them drug resistant “superbugs” prevalent in many Asian countries.

“The reality is that if you live there there’s a good chance you will be carrying those multi-resistant organisms and when you go internationally you will take them with you,” Steve Hambleton said.

“Now the problem occurs when you have surgery, major surgery, maybe a hip replacement or knee replacement and therefore you’re quite sick or quite stressed by that physically, that organism that you could be carrying with you could become invasive and if it does we won’t be able to treat it either and of course there’s a chance that organism will be left behind and we’ll actually see those multi-resistant organisms take up residence here too.”

Medical tourism is already big business for many other countries and Australia will have to work hard to catch up to exploit the lucrative healthcare market and those willing to pay top dollar for it.

source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au / Radio Australia / Home> News / by Kesha West / February 07th, 2014