Thai VI

Medical tourism

Sun, sand and scalpels
Mar 8th 2007 | BANGKOK

From The Economist print edition
Soaring health-care costs in the rich world offer Asian firms an opportunity

AMERICA'S soaring health-care costs, already $2 trillion a year, are predicted to double in the coming decade. Dissatisfaction with the rocketing price of care will only get worse as demanding and health-conscious baby-boomers hit retirement and start to suffer the costly ailments of old age. In countries like Britain and Canada, with supposedly universal coverage, state spending is not keeping up with growing demand, so patients face long and agonising waits for operations. And in the prosperous bits of Asia and the Middle East growing numbers of people are rich enough to demand high-quality medical care that they cannot get locally.

All this presents a fantastic business opportunity for those Asian countries, principally Thailand, Singapore and India, which have excellent private hospitals that are used to treating foreigners and where costs are a fraction of those in rich countries. Medical tourism is booming as patients look abroad for cheap, fast treatment, often combined with a holiday afterwards. Josef Woodman, the author of Patients Beyond Borders, a new guide for those seeking surgery abroad, reckons that 150,000 Americans did so last year, and predicts the numbers will double this year.

Booming demand is encouraging rapid expansion at big stockmarket-listed hospital operators such as Thailand's Bumrungrad and Bangkok Dusit, Singapore's Parkway and Pacific Healthcare and India's Apollo Hospitals. This week Pacific Healthcare said it would build seven medical centres across Asia. Bumrungrad, which treated 430,000 non-Thais last year, has just expanded its Bangkok hospital and is setting up in the Philippines and Dubai.

Singapore is more expensive than Thailand, but still far cheaper than America. Goh Jin Hian, the head of Parkway's Gleneagles Hospital, says Singapore should try to compete for the most complex treatments, leaving cosmetic surgery and other price-sensitive operations to lower-cost rivals such as Thailand. Nevertheless, like the Thai hospital operators, he is sure the medical-travel boom will provide plenty of foreign patients for them all.

Mr Woodman reckons that today's boom is just the start. So far, most medical tourists pay their own way. But the Asian hospital operators are now courting American health insurers and employers desperate to rein in soaring costs. Bumrungrad's marketing chief, Ruben Toral, who was in America this week for talks with insurers and big employers, says they were very keen. BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina already offers Bumrungrad's cut-price treatments to members whose policies do not cover the surgery they need.

To reassure foreign patients, many hospitals are seeking accreditation from the Joint Commission International (JCI), the international arm of the body that accredits American hospitals. Thailand's Bumrungrad and nine Singaporean hospitals already have JCI certificates. Raymond Chong, the boss of Bangkok Dusit's Samitivej Hospital, reckons it will be only a year or two before big American insurers and employers routinely offer patients lower premiums if they are prepared to travel to a foreign JCI-accredited hospital for surgery.

For patients, employers and insurers the benefits are clear. But the hospital operators are bracing themselves for a backlash from the rich countries' medical vested interests whose jobs are, in effect, being outsourced. Expect much shroud-waving from doctors' associations and health-care unions as they highlight the few cases of foreign surgery that go wrongas though such a thing never happens back home.

ข่าวจากอาบูดาบี (GulfNews) เขียน:Published: 24/01/2007 12:00 AM (UAE)

Healthcare the key to lure Gulf tourists
By Shakir Husain, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Southeast Asian countries see their relatively lower cost of healthcare as another tool to entice people from the Middle East for medical tourism.

Hospitals in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia offer various packages to potential health tourists from the region.

Dubai's Department of Health and Medical Services (DOHMS) and Singapore's Ministry of Health recently signed a memorandum of understanding to promote cooperation in healthcare.

The deal will encourage greater collaboration between healthcare establishments in Singapore and Dubai, enabling them to share their experiences.

"Singapore continues to look at ways to ensure that overseas patients who are looking for treatment within our advanced system have the opportunity to access it," said Ke-Wei Peh, Singapore Tourism Board's area director for the Middle East and Africa.

"Our vision is to provide a complementary offering to healthcare systems across the Middle East, with a focus on advanced and innovative areas of medicine within Singapore," he said in a statement.

Jaryll Chan, programme director for market development at SingHealth, a healthcare group, promises services to Middle East travellers "with an awareness of cultural and religious sensitivities."

An average of 200 patients travelled to Singapore from the region for treatment every month in 2006.

Treatments can cover anything from a facelift procedure to heart surgery.

Malaysian hospitals have been advertising their low cost of treatment to lure patients from Arab countries.

"The government of Malaysia supports private sector initiatives in promoting health tourism. We develop package with hospitals, travel agents and airlines by giving incentives to family members travelling with the patient," said Syed Muhadzir Jamallulil, head of Tourism Malaysia in Dubai.

One such incentive is to offer discounted airline tickets to people travelling with the person seeking treatment.

"There are a lot of facilities in Malaysia that can take care of the medical needs of travellers from the Middle East. They are much cheaper than the Gulf," Syed Muhadzir said.

Thailand is also a popular destination for Middle East medical tourists.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand aggressively promotes medical tourism under its theme-based campaigns. Its health services industry has established representation in the region to attract Arab travellers.

Bumrungrad is among the leading Thai hospitals used by people from the Middle East.

The hospital is expanding into the region with one healthcare facility planed in Dubai in a joint venture with investment firm Istithmar.

Published: 03/03/2007 12:00 AM (UAE)

Healthcare set to see investment boom
By Ivan Gale, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Healthcare firms are set to pour into the Middle East as a wave of new spending on hospitals and clinics promises to dramatically reshape the underdeveloped sector.

Once known for sending its affluent residents to Europe or the US for expensive and complicated treatment, the Middle East, and especially the Gulf, is now seeing the first real roots of a fully equipped healthcare system.

Spending is expected to triple in the next decade in the four emerging markets of China, Russia, the Middle East and India, rising from $1 billion to $3 billion, to keep pace with nearly one billion people that will be added to the population.

According to Royal Philips Electronics, life expectancy in the Middle East has climbed from around 60 years a decade ago to around 70 years today. With Middle East residents living longer and changing lifestyle habits, they increasingly are falling prey to heart disease and diabetes, two ailments that are more prevalent as people age.

Philips is set to benefit from the need for new machines and equipment as the healthcare system grapples with the rise in these ailments, according to Gottfried Dutine, executive vice-president.

Longer life expectancies need more monitoring beyond diagnosis and treatment, and Philips believes its traditional equipment, along with its "Lifeline" home-monitoring systems will be in high demand in the region.

Shortage

In the UAE, estimates suggest a shortage of over 2,000 beds, based on current supply compared with population. That deficit has attracted private hospital groups into the region, said Ottmar Schmidt, director of marketing at Welcare World.

Welcare World, a joint venture between GE, South Africa's Medi-Clinic Corp and UAE-based Varkey Group, is building two hospitals at Dubai Healthcare City due for completion in the next 18 months that will add 350 beds.

Dubai Healthcare City is an initiative by Tatweer, a government-owned developer, which said infrastructure spending on this free zone project alone would reach $1.8 billion.

Expanding out of their home countries in the Americas, Europe and even Thailand and India, Dutine said hospital groups are moving in after regional governments became more open to private sector participation.

Philips, one of the biggest medical equipment firms along with Siemens and GE, is targeting this region to supply the raft of new hospitals springing up with its radiology labs, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) labs and defibrillator machines.

The company hopes to more than double its business in medical equipment in the Middle East in the next few years. It recently set up operations in Saudi Arabia to add to its presence in the UAE, Lebanon and Iran.

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