The Latvian Health Tourism Cluster has launched a new promotion for 2014. In cooperation with Latvia’s resorts association the cluster has created a marketing brochure to promote the area, treatment, clinics, hospitals, spas, hotels and tour operators. It explains the specialities of each health destination.
Two targeted groups are English speaking Western Europeans and Russian speakers from Russia and the other CIS states, So, the brochure has been published in Russian and English languages, and will be distributed at foreign medical tourism fairs, professional exhibitions, workshops and conferences. The print run of the brochure is 6,000 copies and it was created with the support of the Latvian Tourism Development Agency.
Latvia believes it has advantages in both medical and health tourism with high product and service quality, professional medical staff, modern technological equipment to ensure services, and much lower prices than most European countries. Most destinations have both English and Russian speaking medical staff, so there is no language barrier. The problem Latvia has to overcome is that it is a little known tourist destination, and many people may be unsure as to where exactly it is.
Jurmala is the first city in Latvia to receive resort status. The government recently granted the status of a resort city to a part of Jurmala’s administrative territory, but not parts in Brazciems, Priedaine and Varnukrogs. The idea is that the new status will help attract local and foreign investment in the infrastructure and will promote the health tourism services of Jurmala in domestic and foreign markets.
To obtain resort status, a number of conditions must be met – within the resort there are natural healing resources, at least one resort’s clinic is operating in a territory of a resort, and natural healing resources are used in the operation of the clinic. Environmental quality indicators must meet the statutory requirements; it must have an appropriate tourism infrastructure. Jūrmala has a range of natural healing resources to improve health and prevent diseases, as well as for rehabilitation and healing.
Jurmala is the largest resort city in the Baltic States and well known for its mild climate, sea, healthy air, curative mud and mineral water. The attractions of Jurmala include a 33 km long white sand beach, a large pine forest and the natural border of the city – the river Lielupe. People go there to recover and strengthen their health by enjoying the healing effect of mud bathing and mineral waters.

Dialysis patients looking to escape the cold or take advantage of snow-related recreation can choose from destinations that include a variety of popular US vacation spots, where they can take in the sights while still receiving regular dialysis treatments.

Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMCNA), the nation’s leading network of dialysis facilities, has added more than 200 dialysis clinics to its nationwide network, largely through its 2012 purchase of Liberty Dialysis Holdings which included more than 70 dialysis facilities in Hawaii, California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, and Utah.
Patients who receive blood-filtering dialysis treatments in a clinical setting need to visit a dialysis facility three times per week to remove waste products and excess fluids from their bodies after their kidneys have failed. Patients can schedule treatments at any of the company’s 2150 facilities through FMCNA’s Patient Travel Service. Available to all US dialysis patients at no cost, regardless of who is their primary dialysis provider, the service locates and schedules dialysis treatment for any patient traveling in the United States, Puerto Rico and abroad.
The FMCNA network allows patients to receive their life-sustaining treatments at or near popular tourism destinations such as:- Haleakala National Park, on Hawaii’s Maui island- The Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco- The Rio Grande River at Laredo, Texas- Pikes Peak and the U.S. Air Force Academy, at Colorado Springs, Colo.- Zion National Park, at St. George, Utah- Lake Tahoe, at Carson City, Nev.
Shalita Simmons of FMCNA explains that the Patient Travel Service is helping US dialysis patients better understand their travel options, “Our patient education efforts have made both the staff and patients more aware of what we provide. We have made dialysis travel options easier, which results in an improved quality of life for patients.”
The travel service also can help home dialysis patients arrange for dialysis supplies during their trip. For patients travelling by air, a letter of medical necessity may also be required to authorize them to carry their own treatment supplies.
FMCNA’s Patient Travel Service arranges tens of thousands of treatments each year for patients traveling in all parts of the USA. It processed 40,000 travel requests during 2013, with the most popular destinations being New York City and the New Jersey Shore; Las Vegas; Myrtle Beach, South California and Florida.

Romania aims to develop health and wellness tourism. The problem is that the government is short of cash and there are not enough big investors in the country willing to part with substantial sums and wait a long time for a return.
So when President Traian Basescu travels to other countries, he takes the opportunity to promote the benefits of Romanian health tourism and seek private investors. He does have an unusual style.
His latest attempt was in Turkey where he openly asked Turkish businessmen at a Turkish-Romanian business forum to invest in Romanian balneal tourism, “Tourism is a field in which major investments can be made, but maybe it is not the best signal to tell Turkish investors to come and invest in our tourism when in Turkey there is a boom of investments in tourism. So I ask you to do something you cannot do in Turkey: invest in balneal tourism. Romania has excellent natural conditions, resources for balneal tourism. In Romania, health springs from the earth. We have waters with out-of-the-ordinary therapeutic qualities and you may remember Romania’s capacity when it comes to treating third age ladies, the famous geriatric programmes. We have an extraordinary potential. Investments in balneal tourism ensure a guaranteed profit. I am inviting you to invest here as investing here is guaranteed profitability as there is no seasonal problem with health tourism. The natural resources we have make it possible to exploit such health programmes both in summer and in winter.”
Basescu continued by also asking them to invest in infrastructure, in energy, and in the food industry, as all are priorities for development.
To ensure he covered all possibilities, the President concluded by seeking investment in healthcare, hospitals and clinics, “Romania is extremely interested in private investments in health. The country has major drawbacks here and investments in health are welcome.” Romania has been trying for years to undertake a profound reform of its health system, which is in very poor condition. This has been postponed several times. New draft legislation was prepared but has not yet been adopted. Part of the problem is endemic corruption. Many doctors and hospitals often expect immediate cash payment for health services. The lack of investment, high level of bureaucracy, lack of income and the underdeveloped private system are the main issues behind the current dire situation of the national health system.
During 2013 the Romanian government and the IMF were at loggerheads. With the IMF encouraging the Romanian government to rethink its plans to scrap the financing of private hospitals. The IMF, which gives loans and aid to the country, opposed these measures, as spending on private healthcare only amounts to 2.7% of the total healthcare budget .The almost broke government decided that private hospitals would no longer receive funding from the National Health Insurance Fund.
Whether Romania will succeed in getting investors is an interesting question. Potential investors will worry that the former Communist state is still very much a centrally controlled country that has many problems. But there are now few EU countries that offer the chance to develop private healthcare, plus health and wellness tourism facilities from an almost clean slate.

Despite near demonisation in parts of the US and Israeli media, Iran is a peaceful country that is successfully attracting local medical tourists away from rivals with political and civil strife, and away from countries that have a tendency to interchangeably use the two quite different words of Muslim and terrorist. This is probably the clearest example in the world of how politics and the global media both affect where medical tourists go for treatment.
Thanks to its geographical position, the conditions in neighbouring countries, reasonable prices and advanced medical facilities, Iran is becoming a destination for Islamic and regional medical tourists. An increasing number of hospitals in Iranian cities offer medical and health care services for foreign medical tourists. Iran offers very advanced healthcare.
Geographical closeness and cultural and religious similarities have turned Iran into one of the favourite destinations for the Islamic world, as well as Muslim and other denominations from nearby countries. Iran has a highly educated workforce and is a local leader in scientific and health development. It 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.
There are two strands to the demand, medical tourism and health/wellness tourism. The existence of mineral fountains in many parts of the country, targets the latter market. Other markets include fertility treatment, stem cell treatment, dialysis, heart surgery, cosmetic surgery, and eye surgery.
Latest figures suggest that 30,000 medical tourists enter Iran annually; plus 200,000 health, wellness and spa tourists.
It has a Health Tourism Committee that has produced rules and regulations for tourist healthcare service centres 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 the Iranian Tourism Organisation. It also offers health service training to employees of tourism agencies and encourages hospitals to open international patients’ wards. 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.
The key target market is the Gulf region, taking people who used to go to Europe or troubled local rivals such as Jordan. An increasing number of patients come from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iraq, Pakistan and even India. Some come as the prices are lower than at home, some come for specialist care, and many come simply because they feel more culturally comfortable in Iran than in Europe or Asia. Iran offers services in ophthalmology, cardiology, kidney transplants, dentistry, urology and general surgery.
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.
What began as a development to stop Iranians from travelling abroad to get medical treatment has turned into success in attracting health and medical tourists. Iran is quietly taking business from established competitors, and ignoring the global media frenzy that surrounds it.

The second edition of “Health, Tourism and Hospitality: Spas, Wellness and Medical Travel" takes an in-depth and comprehensive look at the growing health, wellness and medical tourism sectors in a global context.
The book analyses the history and development of the industries, the way in which they are managed and organised, the expanding range of new and innovative products and trends, and the marketing of destinations, products and services.
The 2nd Edition has been updated to include:• Expanded coverage of the hospitality sector with a focus on spa management.• New content on medical tourism.• Updated content to reflect recent issues and trends including: ageing population, governments encouraging preventative health, consumer use of contemporary and alternative therapies, self-help market, impacts of economic recession, spa management and customer loyalty.• New case studies taken from a range of different countries and contexts, and focusing on established or new destinations, products and services such as: conventional medicine, complementary and alternative therapies, lifestyle-based wellness, beauty and cosmetics, healthy nutrition, longevity and anti –ageing.
Each chapter is written by one or a group of authors. Although some chapters began as academic papers they are all written in a user-friendly style, as the editors have been ruthless in cutting out jargon and academic speak.
At over 500 pages long it is an essential read and as it is readily available from Amazon and bookshops it should be on the bookshelves of anybody involved in medical, health or wellness tourism. It is written for the business by the business, so avoids the hype and simplification common to consumer guidebooks on the sector.

Health, Tourism and Hospitality- Spas, wellness and medical travelSecond editionPaperback £ 34.99Hardback £ 95Routledge imprint of Taylor & Francis Editors Melanie Smith and Laszlo PuczkoISBN 978-0-415-63865-4

Richard Sealy, minister of tourism, wants a more focused fusion of medicine and tourism to benefit Barbados. He stresses that the fusion is important, not only for tourism, but also for the medical profession and for the development of Barbados.
At a recent conference Sealy explained his logic; “We have to see this fusion as providing some exciting opportunities and not purely as an economic argument. It is not just a case of earning foreign exchange because in broadening your horizon, staying on the cutting edge and offering your services to a wider pool of persons, you are taking it to the ultimate extreme in terms of being a better practitioner by having a larger pool. So it is not just good for tourism, it is good for medicine, and it is being a good doctor. It is good for the development of Barbados so medical tourism is extremely important as having significant spin-offs.”
He added, “We have not properly analysed the extent to which the Queen Elizabeth Hospital as a regional centre, has been doing medical tourism over the years. As several departments in the QEH have catered to people from other countries in the region, that is a tourism product. Tourism is any money earned outside of the jurisdiction being spent within the jurisdiction, and if you follow that simplistic definition, we have had medical tourism in Barbados for years.”
Sealy then explained what the government planned; “We need to see how we can properly develop the fusion between medicine and tourism in a more structured way given the fertile ground we have already. If we are going to see ourselves offering our medical services to the world, we will have to be at the cutting edge. Telemedicine offers new scope for medical tourism and provides professionals with the capacity to offer those services to people abroad.”

Accelerating numbers of Chinese visitors to the islands of Hawaii represent a refreshed and unprecedented opportunity for health tourism.
A few years ago, on contract with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, consultants Global Advisory Services worked with the healthcare and hospitality industries and developed a business plan: "Healing in Paradise: A Strategy for Cultivating Health and Wellness Tourism in Hawaii."
The consensus was that success depends on gaining an intimate understanding of the unique intentions of visitors. The economic crisis saw tourist numbers fall so it was all forgotten about.
Previous attempts at formal medical tourism on Oahu were unsuccessful. They focused on modern medicine and executive wellness, targeting visitors from Japan. Hawaii is too expensive to compete with Thailand, Malaysia and India for discounted modern services such as dental implants, cosmetic surgery or elective joint replacements. Hawaii also has difficulty competing with world-renowned brands on the mainland such as Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic for rare or complicated conditions.
The islands are seeing a revival in tourism, led by well off Chinese visitors seeking to enjoy the sun and surf. Whether they can be persuaded to buy healthcare is an open question. A better possibility may be health and wellness offerings from up market spas and similar modern health offerings.

The official support plan to boost Polish medical tourism is reported to have been a great success, and efforts will be increased in 2014.
The programme of transforming medical tourism into one of Poland’s export specialties was first implemented by the Ministry of Economy in March 2012. By the end of 2013 the three-year project reached its halfway mark. The first half focused on creating marketing and promotional materials rather than visits abroad. This was accompanied by adverts in the foreign press and visits of potential business partners and journalists to Poland.
2014 will be quite different with more inbound and outbound trips. Over 40 clinics and hospitals will participate in fairs and trade missions in seven target countries- Germany, Russia, Scandinavian countries, UK and USA- as well as trade fairs in Dubai. Trade missions organized for 2014 in Germany, UK, Denmark, Sweden and Norway provide for meetings with the companies from that country interested in establishing business relations with the Polish medical tourism industry.
2014 will also see adverts in trade publications of those seven target countries, promoting Poland as an excellent place for treatment, rehabilitation and rest. In 2014 Poland will also fund visits of foreign guests, interested in Poland’s medical facilities. A group of journalists from the seven countries will visit Poland in May. All this has been arranged by the European Center for Enterprise.

Official South Korean tourist organization KTO expects medical tourist numbers to reach 598,000 in 2015 and 998,000 in 2020.With such a surge in numbers, the revenue from medical tourism is expected to jump to 3.5 trillion won in 2020 from 1.01 trillion won in 2013.
The KTO expects the amount of average per capita spending in Korea by medical tourists to grow from 2.53 million won in 2013 to 3.56 million won in 2020. It predicts that the number of medical tourists from foreign countries could reach about 1 million and generate revenue of 3.5 trillion won (US$3.2 billion) by 2020.
Since the country launched a promotional campaign to promote medical tourism in 2009, the number of people visiting Korea for treatment has increased by 38.4 % annually. The number of hospitals and clinics involved in the industry has grown to 3800 this year.
In 2012 159,000 people from 188 countries visited Korea for medical treatment. The Korea Tourism Organization claims that this rose to 399,000 in 2013 and will reach 998,000 in 2020. While there is general agreement that medical tourism is growing, not everybody believes the KTO figures as if true they would mean a huge increase from 2012 to 2013 of an additional 140%.
Soon after the KTO figures had spread globally, the Health Ministry said that just over 200,000 foreigners visited Korea for medical treatment in 2013, but it will take a while for exact numbers to be known. That the KTO managed to announce the 2013 figures two months before the end of 2013, speaks for itself.
The key reason for the increasing numbers and bullish predictions is the growing popularity of Korea’s medical services in foreign countries, particularly China. The China Daily reported that 62% of 31,000 Chinese people who went in South Korea on 15-day medical tourism visas in 2012 had cosmetic surgery.
South Korea saw its surplus in its health tourism account top US$100 million in 2013, largely thanks to increased spending by overseas travellers seeking healthcare and medical services in the country. According to data compiled by the Bank of Korea, the country’s income from medical tourism reached $187 million in the first 11 months of 2013, up 35.3 % from $138 million a year earlier, marking the biggest tally since the central bank began to keep related data in 2006.The income outpaced local residents’ overseas spending on medical travel, which amounted to $86.4 million during the same period, down 11.2 % from a year earlier. So the country logged a surplus of $101 million in health tourism in the January-November period, compared with a surplus of $41 million a year earlier.
South Korea’s medical travel income came in at $59 million in 2006 but has increased steadily on the back of the advancement of medical technology and regional governments’ efforts to attract overseas patients. The income gained steadily from $69.8 million in 2007 to $89.5 million in 2010. The comparable figures for 2011 and 2012 were $131 million and $149 million. South Korean residents’ overseas expenditures on health-related services reached a peak in 2007 at $137 million and then fell to $96 million in 2009 before rebounding to $109 million in 2010.They spent $78.5 million and $105 million, respectively, in 2011 and 2012. The country logged its first surplus in medical tourism in 2011 at $52.2 million. In 2012, the surplus fell to $43.8 million.
2014 saw a head of state go to South Korea for medical treatment. Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan had rejuvenation treatment at Chaum Center in Gangnam. Chaum has drawn many rich people from around the world who go to Seoul in their private jets. Among them have been Chinese and Canadian business tycoons, the prime minister of Kazakhstan and Saudi and UAE royalty.

Europeans have a low awareness of the right to cross-border medical care while the gap is widening on health provision between richer and poorer EU countries.
The Euro Health Consumer Index 2013 is the seventh study made on European healthcare systems. The report from Health Consumer Powerhouse takes a consumer and patient perspective.
Across Europe there is still very low awareness of the right to search for medical options outside of people’s own country. Not even among the better-informed populations of Western Europe the mobility right is common knowledge. In large parts of the EU it is hard to find any patient advocate – and few patients – aware of this important opportunity.
Since EHCI started measuring outcomes, the average performance level of national healthcare has risen significantly. General improvement is evident, in the shadow of austerity. Even under financial restrictions treatment outcomes keep improving and generally, the range and reach of the healthcare systems is kept up. There is a growing awareness of the need for prevention.
Long waiting for appointments seems to be a cultural phenomenon in some countries rather than a financial one, a pattern that is hard to change. In the UK the NHS urgently needs further reform if it is to match the services offered by Western Europe’s leading health systems. Both English and Scottish healthcare provision lags behind the performance of most Western European countries.
The financial crisis has led to increasing inequity in healthcare services across Europe. The results show that there is now a two-speed delivery of healthcare, depending on the consumers’ country. The quality of care that consumers can expect is discernibly higher in richer countries than in poorer. In addition, the gap is widening.
Arne Bjornberg of Health Consumer Powerhouse says: “Healthcare decision makers are concerned by the impact of the economic crisis. Our 2013 ranking indicates that wealthier countries are clustered towards the top of the Index, and this is more marked than in previous years.”
There are also concerns for healthcare companies and patients over access to new therapies and treatments. Financial restraints have encouraged growing numbers of countries to increase the delay between the approval of new medicines and therapies and their gaining reimbursement. Because newer treatments are often more expensive, slowing their introduction is a way of containing costs.
For the first time since the first EHCI was launched in 2005, there is now a clear gap in healthcare provision between the affluent, financially strong parts of Europe and the less affluent, crisis-struck countries. Although treatment results such as cancer and infant survival keep improving all over Europe, there are almost no medium-income countries in the top half of the Index in 2013.
The researchers assessed and rated health care systems in 35 countries. Netherlands scores 870 points of the maximum of 1,000, surpassing Switzerland (851), Iceland (818), Denmark (815), and Norway (813). Serbia, Romania, Latvia, and Poland scored lowest.
The study praises the Dutch system, partly because of the high number of independent insurers and health care providers that compete for the patient. The high patient involvement and limited political interference characterizes the Dutch system.

A long waiting time to get treatment from state or private healthcare at home is a key reason why people become medical tourists. A new report shows that waiting times are growing across Europe and elsewhere.
"Measuring and Comparing Health Care Waiting Times in OECD Countries" is a new OECD report by Valerie Moran, Luigi Siciliani and Michael Borowitz.
Waiting times for elective (non-emergency) treatments are a key health policy concern in several OECD countries. This study describes common measures on waiting times across OECD countries from administrative data. It focuses on common elective procedures, like hip and knee replacement, and cataract surgery, where waiting times are notoriously long.
It provides comparative data on waiting times across twelve OECD countries and presents trends in waiting times in the last decade. Waiting times appear to be low in the Netherlands and Denmark. In the last decade the United Kingdom (in particular England), Finland and the Netherlands have witnessed large reductions in waiting times which can be attributed to a range of policy initiatives, including higher spending, waiting-times target schemes, and incentive mechanisms which reward higher levels of activity.
The negative trend in these countries has halted in recent years and in some cases reverted. The analysis also emphasizes systematic differences across different waiting-time measures, in particular between the distributions of waiting times of patients treated versus the one of patients on the list.

Hungarian dentists who target foreign patients have so far received 12.4 million Euros in European Union and state funding available under a scheme that supports the development of dental tourism in Hungary.
The targeted funding from the National Development Agency’s Economic Development Operative Programme and the Central Hungary Operative Programme has so far supported 136 dental practices, and up to 20 requests are pending. The Central Hungary Operative Programme is co-funded by The European Regional Development Fund.
In 2013, dental clinics participating in the government’s Dental Tourism Development programme reported an overall increase of more than 19% in turnover. Many of the clinics are in Budapest.
The opposition party Democratic Coalition has attacked the dental tourism development programme’s funding process as unfair. It claims that access to grants is only given to those enterprises which pay HUF 1.5 million in annual membership fees to Orvosi Turizmus Iroda Zrt, a private company run by Laszlo Szűcs and Bela Batorfi. Some leading clinics have refused to take part due to this restriction.
Being a registered member of the Hungarian Dental Tourism Development Programme is a condition for any application for innovation funds – as this is the only way national targets can be achieved due to their complexity. The programme aims to triple the number of patients visiting Hungary in five years, to stop the exodus of Hungarian dentists, and to make Hungary the worldwide leader of dental tourism by the end of 2015.

Residents of the northern Greek city of Xanthi are increasingly crossing the border into Bulgaria in search of cheap dental services.
The average price for dental fillings in Bulgaria ranges between 15 and 20 Euros. Most Greeks are patients without covered health insurance.
Greek dental tourism is so popular that clinics in Petrich have already started writing their working hours in both Bulgarian and Greek. It is mainly working class Greeks who go there; some of them also speak Bulgarian.
Bulgaria is a preferred destination due to the low-cost, high-quality dental care for British citizens as well.

New figures show that while Australia may have a smaller inbound than outbound medical tourism industry, inbound medical tourism is often driven by better off tourists, while outbound is driven by less well off people seeking to save money, mostly on dental and cosmetic surgery.

More than 10,000 medical tourists flew into Australia in 2012/2013 for procedures, pumping more than $26 million into the national economy, new figures show. While an increasing number of Australians are travelling to Asian countries such as Thailand and Singapore for cheap care, Australian doctors and hospital chiefs say a small but increasing number of wealthy people from the Asia-Pacific region are going to Australia for treatments such as orthopedic and heart surgery, cancer services and IVF.

Data from Tourism Research Australia, the federal government’s agency in charge of tracking trends, shows 10,739 people went to Australia for medical reasons in the year to September 2013 – double the number in 2006. The data, which models information from surveys of 40,000 people in Australian airports each year, found medical tourists spent about $26 million in 2013, up from $12.7 million in 2006. This figure did not include their airfares and packages they had already purchased.

While there is no precise data on who is coming to Australia and why, from the government survey, there is local evidence. Epworth Group hospitals care for 600 international patients a year from 31 countries, including the Pacific Rim, USA, New Zealand, Singapore and Indonesia. This includes medical tourists and people who fall unexpectedly ill while visiting Australia.
The Monash IVF centre gets 50 medical tourists a year paying a premium price for reproductive treatment.

A 2010 Victorian government report on export opportunities recommended that Victorian hospitals set up assistance centres in Indonesian cities to guide people wanting to travel to Australia for medical treatment. The report suggested that the service would include transportation, medical referrals and appointments, hotel accommodation, assistance before, during and after hospitalisation, and customer service assistance for billing and financial inquiries. Neither hospitals nor government have followed up on the recommendation.

Government in the state of Victoria is working on a strategy to increase health and medical exports including medical tourism. Weight-loss surgery, robotic surgery, orthopedic surgery and IVF are key areas under consideration. One opportunity under discussion is Melbourne’s Parkville Precinct that by late 2015 will include a new major cancer centre. The federal and state governments in a public-private partnership fund the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. One proposal under consideration is to include 50 private beds on a separate private floor and to use medical tourism to help generate revenue for public services. The argument is that as long as international and privately insured Australian patients do not cut into the provision of healthcare for public patients in the hospital, it could generate income to boost public services the way overseas students have done for the education sector. Some local politicians and doctors are against having any private patients there.

An increase in inbound medical tourism would require hospitals and government to work together. At present medical tourists are being treated on an ad hoc basis at public hospitals without proper co-ordination. There is a recognition that it needs to get better organised to make it simpler for people to come in on short-term visas and to pay the money, and link in with local hotels.