Sally White finds
that more people than ever are travelling abroad for their medical needs
A highly fragmented market, online medical tourism is
nonetheless developing strongly in the most unexpected parts of the world.
While global figures are hard to find, venture fund group Accel Partners
estimate that it could be worth $55 billion with six to 10 million people
annually travelling to find medical services.
Latest news includes Dubai’s launch of what it says is the
first comprehensive electronic medical tourism portal, Bangkok-based Medical
Departures raising $2.5 million to develop its global online booking service
and Canadian online travel group Travelucion signing a deal a few days ago to
promote Cuban medical tourism online.
Dubai has developed a strong international customer base for
its hospitals, helped by the fact that the national Emirates airline flies to
over 140 countries. Its 26 hospitals and 1,000 clinics last year saw 638,000
medical tourists it said, of which 47,000 were from outside the region.
“Every year the number goes up by 12-15%,” Dr Laila Al
Marzouqi, head of the Dubai Health Authority’s (DHA) medical tourism initiative
told a press conference. The initiative
has a target of 500,000 international medical tourists for its medical hub by
2020.
Acknowledging patient nervousness about trusting their
vital parts to hospitals around the other side of the world, the DHA has
incorporated a Patient Bill of Rights and Patient Protection Plan in its
medical packages.
“The medical packages provide for medical insurance to cover
any complication or medical liability,” she said.
Global interest
Medical Departures’ funding is interesting in terms of who
joined it. Included were giant German publishers, Hubert Burda Media, which is
now well established in the wellness and health media markets, in digital
publishing, magazines and conferences. Health is a major market in Germany -
the most recent figures show the country spending 11.3% of its GDP on
healthcare – 2% above the OECD average - partially self-funded and partially state. Medical Departures offers a range of clinics
as far afield as South-east Asia and Latin America.
Travelucion have signed a new deal to promote a wide range
of treatments in Cuba to North America. A combination of low cost treatment and
post-operative rehabilitation centres make Cuba an attractive location to
American and Canadian medical tourists, it says.
Another funding, earlier this year, was a $3.5 million
investment from China-based CL Global Healthcare into Medigo, a global booking
service. CL Global was set up to link
China with the US health system, and late last year also invested in start-up
VoyagerMed, an online marketplace for medical tourism exclusively to US based
doctors.
Plenty of other countries are keen to access patients on
line. Malaysia is one, and it is not doing badly with the latest annual figures
put at 882,000. However, growth has slowed to an annual 1% and, according to
international consultants Frost & Sullivan, the country “needs to further
develop health care resources, particularly specialists and ancillary health
care workers and technical health care skills.”
The government is now aiming to promote its development
with three health care hubs - in Penang, Malacca and Johor Bahur as part of its
five-year economic development plan.
Thailand remains the dominant medical tourism player in
Asia, with around 50% of the regional market, says Frost & Sullivan.
Medical tourism could have generated as much as $3 billion in 2015 from income
earned by private hospitals listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand alone,
according to Kasikorn Research Centre, a subsidiary of Kasikorn Bank. This
represents revenue growth of 15% year-on-year.
Estimate: 1.2 million to 1.4 million Americans are now
heading overseas for surgery annually
According to Josef Woodman, CEO of online group Patients
Beyond Borders, increasing numbers of people are going abroad for health care.
Judging by data from ministries of health and hospitals around the world, he
says, 1.2 million to 1.4 million Americans are now heading overseas for surgery
annually. And that number has been increasing by an average of 23% per year for
the last ten years. He attributes recent rises, in part, to Obamacare making
Americans increasingly comfortable with shopping for physicians and insurance
plans.
Listed for Americans by the New York Post as the top
medical tourism destinations are Mexico, Colombia, Barbados, Hungary, India,
Thailand, South Korea, each with their own specialisations. Most costs are at
least 50% cheaper than in the US. Not that Americans are the only outbound
medical tourists, there are plenty of others avoiding their countries’
expensive or unsafe medical systems. Nigeria is actually banning medical
tourism for its nationals, having found their annual spend was $1 billion.
As international consultants PwC commented: Globalisation
has radically altered the business model for service and manufacturing
industries. Health, traditionally regarded as a local industry, is becoming
global as well.
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