MALAYSIA: Malaysia targets medical tourism from Oman Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:51:54 GMTThe Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council is working hard to promote Malaysia as a medical tourism destination for people from Oman. Kavitha Mathuvay from MHTC explains, "There is encouraging market growth in Oman. It has grown 50% since 2010. In 2012, 1,000 Omani patients went to Malaysian hospitals, increasing to 1,300 in 2013. Among the GCC countries, Omanis are ranked third among medical travellers to Malaysia." MHTC is also working with Oman’s Ministry of Health to promote Malaysia as a destination for medical referrals. It has to compete with India, Thailand and European countries for referrals. One attraction for people from Oman is that many features appeal to Muslims, such as the availability of halal food, access to prayer rooms in hospitals, and services in Arabic. Omanis seek treatment in Malaysia for cardiology, orthopaedics, oncology, ophthalmology, IVF and neurology. The potential market is limited as nearly half of those living in Oman are expatriate workers; mostly low paid domestic and manual workers .The need to go overseas may only last until new free public hospitals are built. Healthcare for Omani citizens is free; they get free treatment in public hospitals, while expatriates do not. The healthcare sector in Oman is set to undergo a major expansion, with both the government and the private sector investing in new medical cities as well as developing a number of smaller hospitals. Read More >>

UAE, DUBAI: Upmarket Dubai hotel to open to attract medical tourists Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:52:15 GMTUAE hotel group, TIME Hotels Management, plans to build a new five-star hotel located just a few minutes from Dubai Healthcare City. The 277-room TIME Royal Hotel will occupy a prime position with a 10-minute drive from Dubai International Airport. The hotel is set to open in 2016 and will offer guests a choice of two restaurants, a coffee shop, fully equipped gymnasium, swimming pool, and spa. While there are many modern hotels in Dubai, there are few near to Dubai Healthcare City. Dubai has some of the most expensive room rates in the world. Mohamed Awadalla of TIME Hotels comments, "Dubai plans to position the emirate as a global medical tourism destination. To support this ambitious strategy it is imperative that in the nearby Oud Metha area where we are building the new hotel, that there are many more hotel rooms. We will add more value to the market with two rooms per floor designed to be handicap-accessible; which is a first for the city. The hotel will also be wheelchair friendly with ramps sited throughout its major public areas and with adapted elevator access." DHCC’s medical tourism agency Salamatak is expanding its focus across Africa, Middle East and East Europe. Ibrahim Abu Gharbieh of Salamatak says, “Not all medical tourists want to stay close to the hospitals. Some want to stay next to shopping and stations, some prefer to stay in beach...

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Is the Dominican Republic ready to be a health tourism destination? Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:52:36 GMTThe Dominican Republic aims to become an international health destination, particularly for people from Caribbean countries. Rescue RD group offers medical services in Puerto Plata, La Romana, Bavaro and Sosua-Cabarete.It has seen a gradual increase in cases referred to the Dominican Republic from other Caribbean islands in the last four years. But these are mostly travellers who become ill or injured during their holiday and need to be airlifted from islands that have inadequate medical care, and are mostly covered by travel insurance, Developing medical tourism is a priority for the country; say the Tourism Ministry, the Exports and Investment Center (CEI-RD), Congress, Free Zones Council for Export and Public Health. These government organisations claim that the growth of public and private healthcare nationwide, including in tourist resorts, would be a good base for targeting medical tourists from the Caribbean and USA. These arguments are often boosted by numbers claimed for existing medical tourists. RDD Rescue points out that the numbers are actually of international patients and in 2013 alone, this included 36,000 tourists assisted with emergencies. There are four types of hospital in the Dominican Republic. The first is the public hospital. There is one in every reasonable sized town and the medical treatment is free, but all medicines and x-rays, stitches etc have to be paid for. The standard of care is average at best and they should only be...

UK: Private hospitals to get ratings after independent inspection Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:53:01 GMTFor the first time, private hospitals in England will have independent inspections where hotel style ratings will be made public, so helping domestic and international patients in making choices. The independent Care Quality Commission is running a pilot to test a new inspection approach. Eight independent hospitals will be inspected around the country. These vary in size and in the number and type of services they provide, including both NHS-funded care and solely private care. The first new style inspections will allow it to test out the new model in different independent hospital settings. CQC will expect to receive equivalent information about performance to that it receives from NHS hospitals. CQC’s new regulatory approach for the independent healthcare sector signals the first time that these providers will be awarded ratings (from April 2015). There will also be a significant increase in access to information that will help people who use the services to make decisions about their care. The first inspections will take place from October to December 2014. They will include announced and unannounced elements and may include inspections in the evenings and weekends when CQC suspects people can experience poor care. These pilots will help it refine the way it inspects this sector and help it develop a rating system. It will begin to issue ratings for private hospitals in 2015. The core services being inspected will follow the same approach as in the...

HUNGARY: Spa tourism: Case study of Hévíz published Fri, 03 Oct 2014 15:53:24 GMTThe Tourism Observatory for Health Wellness and Spa has issued a case study of the Hungarian spa town of Hévíz, “Hot springs, tourism and economic impacts’ Health tourism is the one and only industry in Hévíz. The thermal lake of Hévíz is the world’s largest biologically active natural thermal lake. It is in a unique setting, 6 km from the Lake Balaton, 198 km from Vienna and 193 km from Budapest. The heat coming from the deeper layers of the earth’s crust heats the waters locked inside the underground deposits, which means that the lake is also heated by geometric energies. Guests can bathe even in the winter months. The steady and constant water flow has a beneficial effect on the body as it keeps bathers lightly massaged during the whole time they spend in the lake. The therapeutic effect has many uses in health prevention and cure., and the basis of balneotherapy is thermal water. It is claimed that the therapy has beneficial effects on rheumatic diseases, osteoporosis, degenerative spinal/joint diseases, chronic and gynaecological conditions. The healing city of Hévíz attracts some 225,000 guests every year who spend a million guest nights at the destination. There are 23 hotels, many of which are either wellness or medical hotels .In Hungary there is special legislation for medical hotels by law and industry self-regulation is for wellness hotels. The study estimates that the 225,000 tourists have a significant...

RUSSIA: Russia spends $ 58 million to rescue Crimean health tourism Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:10:38 GMTThe Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine has almost destroyed local health and wellness tourism. As some Western countries do not accept that the vast majority of the people of Crimea are happy to once again be part of Russia, politics and sanctions mean that health tourist numbers from Europe and Ukraine have fallen to almost zero. As many of the people who have traditionally gone to Crimea for health and wellness breaks, or recuperation, come from Russia and other CIS countries, Russia has a simple solution which may or may not work. The intent is to rebuild tourism and health tourism with an almost exclusive focus on people from Russia and the other CIS countries including Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova, Georgia and Belarus. The logic is simple, facilities are rarely modern and few speak any language other than Russian- so trying to target Europeans who want luxury facilities or do not speak Russian, when the majority of the European press voice anti-Russian sentiments, is pointless. The Russian government has allocated $58 million for health, wellness and medical tourism to Crimea in a bid to salvage the tourism industry in the annexed Ukrainian territory. The money, assigned to the state Social Insurance Fund, will make it possible to send 75,000 Russian people to the Black Sea resort’s sanatoriums. Crimea, a popular resort in Soviet times that had been part of Ukraine since 1954, was...

SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka plans to promote medical tourism Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:15:46 GMTSri Lanka plans to promote medical tourism to support a 20 billion dollars export target in year 2020. Sujatha Weerakoone of the Export Development Board explains, “Professional service exports present a tremendous opportunity and can speed up government’s ’20 billion dollars exports by 2020’ goal. Medical tourism is one of the most promising sub-sectors in this. We are ready to work with any and all stakeholders to get this off the ground. With only a per capita healthcare expenditure of 175 dollars, at first, Sri Lanka does not appear to have an advanced healthcare infrastructure similar to developed countries. But due to the support of well trained, high quality healthcare professionals, availability of treatment centres as well as pharmaceuticals, we are witnessing the emergence of a new sector that is medical tourism contributing to our service exports. Studies show that around 15% of patients in Sri Lanka are foreign patients, such as from the Maldives.” Sri Lanka has over a thousand government hospitals including teaching hospitals, district hospitals, special hospitals, divisional hospitals and medical care units. The island also has number of private hospitals. The government neither has the money, experience nor wish to promote medical tourism on its own. So it wants to develop private public partnership to develop medical tourism. The EDB has made the first national initiative to rally healthcare providers as well as stakeholders and formulate a common voice. It wants to...

INDIA: Apollo Hospitals looks to the Gulf Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:21:53 GMTIndia’s Apollo Hospitals group is getting more patients from the UAE, Qatar and Oman. It sees huge potential in the GCC and the greater Middle Eastern region, despite the huge number of new hospitals being built in various countries there. Dr Hariprasad of Apollo Hospitals explains, "The proven Indian clinical competencies give India a huge competitive advantage. We have seen the number of patients visiting us from GCC region growing at a rapid pace. In the last few quarters we have seen a remarkable increase from UAE, Qatar and Oman. Comparing global prices for medical treatment, India leads in the race for providing quality healthcare services at affordable prices. This is a huge, untapped market, not just for therapeutic medical tourism like Ayurveda, but also for curative treatment." Emirates, one of the world’s fastest growing airlines, has teamed up with Apollo Hospitals, to connect international patients with quality healthcare services in India. As part of the joint venture with Emirates Airlines, patients and their companions from 19 countries across Middle East and Africa can visit the hospital group’s flagship locations in Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmadabad and Bangalore with special fares for round-trip flights on Emirates. Apollo Hospital, Chennai caters to many patients from the Middle East with various speciality services it is recognized for. It performs a large number of bone marrow transplants and has a very high success rate. The Chennai unit also specializes in...

UAE, DUBAI: UAE simplifies the visa process for medical tourists Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:25:27 GMTThe UAE has an amended visa policy with new options for medical tourists. Under the new rules, a medical treatment visa costs Dhs550, with a multiple entry visa priced at Dhs1400 and a visa for a patient’s escort also priced at Dhs1400. The move is part of the UAE’s and specifically Dubai’s strategy to become a major medical tourism destination. The introduction of the new visas is a positive step towards the fulfilment of the target of half a million medical tourists by 2020. The visas will also help in measuring the number of medical tourists entering the UAE (from countries that require visas), which in turn can help support future planning and improvement in the emirate’s medical tourism offerings. The change may not have that great an impact, as critics argue that it was already very easy to get a visa, for those who can afford to travel to Dubai, so much of the change is merely cosmetic. Dubai Health Authority is about to launch the first batch of medical tourism packages for overseas patients, which cover treatment costs, visa, accommodation and recreational activities for families who accompany the patient. Hospitals that wish to participate are evaluated and need to pass stringent verification. The DHA plans to build 22 hospitals including 18 private and four public hospitals in the next few years to support the hoped for high volumes of medical tourists. The authority...

USA: What would stop Americans travelling for dental treatment? Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:31:23 GMTIn an unusual research project, dental systems research group, Software Advice, asked Americans what issues would persuade those considering overseas dental care to cancel and get treatment at home. US dentists are frustrated that Americans go overseas for dental care, and some dentists suggest that this may be because they are unaware of the range of dental treatment and the range of prices available in the USA, and that once travel and accommodation costs are taken into account, the saving may not be significant. US dentists feel they can offer better care. So dental systems research group Software Advice surveyed a random sample of 1,155 U.S. patients to identify what issues might persuade those most likely to travel for dental care to reconsider their travel plans. Only among those that said that they could perhaps be persuaded to cancel their travel plans, 39% would reconsider more expensive care in the U.S. if they were educated on the health risks associated with dental care abroad. Overseas countries and dentists may dispute this allegation, but some US dentists argue that risks could be substantial, including the potential for additional damage following a botched procedure. As a result, a course of action that patients hope will help them save time and money could actually result in worse outcomes and higher costs. American dentists hope that if they take the time to explain this to patients, they may be able...

SOUTH KOREA: Clinics and hospitals given right to operate hotels Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:38:30 GMTThe government in South Korea has changed the law to allow clinics and hospitals to own and operate hotels, to help promote medical tourism. There are several hotels that have partnerships with hospitals and clinics, but the new rules will allow organisations targeting medical tourists to build and run hotels for medical tourists and partners, in their grounds or nearby. The change removes the anomaly where it was legal for hotels to own and operate clinics, but not the other way round. The stem cell clinic at the Imperial Palace Seoul hotel in Gangnam gets one in three patients from overseas, up from one in five in 2013. It has brochures in Chinese and has hired a Chinese interpreter to help Chinese patients, who account for a significant portion of foreign customers. Anti-aging treatments using stem cells are the most popular services at the clinic, and patients stay three days and two nights on average at the hotel. The clinic says that the proximity of the clinic to the rooms is an important selling point. The hotel has been running various clinics since 2009 and these now include a dental clinic, dermatology clinic, and a cosmetic clinic Other hotels partner with a nearby clinic. The Lotte Hotel in Seoul partners with the Samsung Medical Center and Korea University Hospital, who both send their patients to the hotel, where they benefit from discounted rooms and an...

CHINA : Live longer, become a medical tourist Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:43:09 GMTThe southern Chinese tourist resort of Hainan offers tourists the chance to live longer. The International Expert Committee on Population Aging and Longevity (ISCPAL) has declared the island province as a World Longevity Island. The only other island in the world names as a longevity island is South Korea’s Jeju Island. ISCPAL conducted field research in 17 places in 2013. Hainan has 1.2 million residents above the age of 60, 13.36 % of its total population. By 2015, the number of octogenarians is expected to reach 170,000. The tropical island has high-quality air and water, an outstanding natural environment and strong social welfare system. It. A study by the ISCPAL showed that the hair of Hainan’s centenarians has ample trace elements, which are beneficial to human health. The soil and produce in Chengmai county in western Hainan are rich in selenium. Two places in Hainan were previously branded as "Longevity Cities" by ISCAL, Chengmai and Wanning. Wenchang City is also famed as one of the country’s top longevity spots. China hopes that this latest accolade will help Hainan attract health and wellness tourists. Longevity tourism is a peculiarity of China with thousands of Chinese travelling to Bama County in South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to seek the recipe for a long life. The county’s longevity pilgrims can be seen crawling around on four-legs and are even known to drink urine, believing the practices help keep illness...

SWITZERLAND: Suicide tourism in Switzerland targets patients who are not terminally ill Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:49:24 GMTA recent magazine feature suggests that the business of “assisted suicide” is now attracting people who are not terminally ill. In Switzerland, the numbers of people travelling from abroad to die are growing dramatically. Even more disturbing is the fact that the reasons they cite in seeking suicide are growing beyond inevitably terminal illness to include traditionally manageable conditions. For years, the Swiss government has adopted a hands-off attitude to the business. Assisting suicide in Switzerland is technically illegal, but the law punishes only those with selfish motives–which has turned out to be nearly impossible to prove in Swiss courts. This has, in practice, led to a system where anyone can assist in a suicide with essentially no restriction on whose suicides they facilitate. Assisting suicide is legal in only a handful of jurisdictions in the USA and Europe. The New Scientist magazine article, ’Non-fatal diseases increasingly drive assisted suicide’ reports “An ongoing study of assisted suicide in the Zurich area has found that the number of foreign people coming to the country for the purpose is rising. 123 people came in 2008 and 172 in 2012. In total 611 people came over that period from 31 countries, with most coming from Germany or the UK, with 44% and 21% of the total respectively. " “Neurological diseases, only some of which are fatal, were given as the reason for 47% of assisted suicides...

AFRICA, AUSTRALASIA: AXA launches cross- border insurance plans Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:53:21 GMTWhile medical tourism linked insurance has not yet happened, and shows few signs of being important to health insurance in the future, an increasing number of international health plans accept that in certain parts of the world it is important to offer cross-border healthcare. This cross border healthcare is aimed at situations where a hospital or clinic in a nearby clinic may offer the best solution for a patient. These insurances are not blazing a trail for overseas treatment, as they are following where people already go. They are not aimed at covering planned overseas treatment, as many of these procedures such as cosmetic and dental surgery are outside the cover, AXA PPP International has a new international plan for Kenya and Tanzania as part of the strategy to expand into African countries using local partners. The Pan Africa Plan is distributed by Nairobi based insurance broker J W Seagon, and covers treatment and care in facilities across the African continent, as well as offering the added flexibility of having treatment in India and Pakistan when needed. Pan Africa Plan offers five levels of cover to meet people’s healthcare needs and budgets. Bronze cover provides benefit for in-patient and day-patient treatment and includes the option to add outpatient cover for those wanting extra protection. Silver and Gold provide additional benefits to those of Bronze, including outpatient drugs and dressings and, for Gold, an annual health check. Platinum,...

BAHAMAS: Slow progress in medical tourism Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:57:56 GMTIMTJ has published several reports on plans for medical tourism to the Bahamas, but these plans have yet to bear fruit. A local surgeon has put forward his view on the lack of progress. Bahamas surgeon Duane Sands says, “The Bahamas must knock down all the barriers that threaten the viability of a medical tourism industry, as there is a disconnect between rhetoric and reality. The Bahamas needs to embrace medical tourism and push it aggressively to potential overseas clients/healthcare providers, if it is to establish itself as a major player in the sector. The supporting infrastructure, with a timely and efficient approvals process, requires implementation. Time is money, and various approvals committees described in legislation are yet to be appointed. So potential investors will head elsewhere rather than suffer inordinate delays in the Bahamas." A new law on the still controversial use of stem cell therapy is aimed at making the Bahamas a global pacesetter in stem cell therapy and related practices But Sands points out that the new law is useless unless the infrastructure is in place so that people can get treatment. “It is all well and good to talk about it and strategise about it. The difficulty is when you convert that into action. I am not holding my breath. We need implementation, whether it is one, two or three new medical tourism programmes by the Government, or the private sector with the support of...