Dubai targets medical tourism market

The healthcare travel industry is an important part of Dubai's strategy, the first medical tourism conference to take place in the United Arab Emirates was told today (Sunday, 2 November 2008).

The Healthcare Travel congress was officially opened by Dr Haidar Al Yousuf, Transition Director at the Dubai Health Authority (DHA), who highlighted the importance the authority is placing on the future of medical tourism. "We recognise the future role health will play in making Dubai an attractive place for others outside of Dubai seeking a wide range of healthcare services,” he said.

“The healthcare sector in Dubai will become an increasingly attractive place for international healthcare investors, providers, services, facilities and healthcare professionals," he said in an opening speech. "We want to harness this potential. By learning from the experience of others and by building strategic relationships with local, regional and international partners, health will continue to play its part in the exciting development of this very unique city.”

Medical tourism has become a global phenomenon which it is estimated could top $40 billion by 2010 and leading industry professionals involved are attending the Healthcare Travel Exhibition and Congress taking place at Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, Dubai, until 4 November 2008.

Sietske Meerloo, Senior Marketing Manager at organisers IIR Middle East, said: “I think everyone realises the potential the medical tourism market has in this region. That is why we have so many of the major players here. We are covering so many exciting aspects of this business and it is great we have managed to attract such prominent speakers and participants."

Curtis Schroeder, the Group CEO of Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand has seen the scope of medical tourism first hand. “We treated 420,000 foreign patients last year," he said. "In 28 years of treating foreign patients we haven’t seen a decline. We have the world’s largest outpatient facility and we have seen continued robust demand. Medical tourism is real, available and has immediate effect."

The Healthcare Travel Exhibition and Congress is made up of four distinct conferences – the Healthcare Travel Congress, Global Healthcare Marketing, International Healthcare Operations and Financing and Insurance of Healthcare Travel. Participating countries include: Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Korea, Cyprus, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, India, France, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United States, Canada, Turkey and Pakistan.

Organised in association with the International Medical Travel Association, the Healthcare Travel Exhibition and Congress is supported by the UAE Ministry of Health, the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi. Platinum sponsors are Singapore Medicine. Gold sponsors are the American Hospital Dubai and Dubai Health Authority.

Source: albawaba.com Contributed by: DMSMedwire Research JSG Team

Bangkok Hospital Receives Best Global Hospital Award

Bangkok Hospital Medical Centre has received an award naming it the Best Global Hospital, at a ceremony in Chicago. The hospital is the only facility outside the US to receive an award at this prestigious event.

HealthLeaders Media announced Bangkok Hospital the award winner in July in Tennessee. Jim Molpus, the Editor-in-Chief, says that the aims of the awards are to make leaders mutually accountable for their hospital's results. The areas of accountability vary from patient satisfaction, to financial performance.

Bangkok Hospital Medical Center receives the inaugural award in the category, setting lofty standards for nominees in future years.

Chris Sharasuvana, the hospital's e-marketing manager, believes that this is only the first of many awards for the hospital in the international healthcare scene.
"The majority of our patients are international residents - the hospital's reputation internationally is growing so fast." "I'm thrilled that we've been recognized in this way, and I expect that it will happen more as time goes on".

US healthcare professionals warmed immediately to Chatree Duaganet MD, the hospital's CEO, as he spoke at the ceremony. Rick Johnson, Healthleaders Media's senior online editor, says that others at the event " were impressed by his candor and found it humorous that many of the challenges he faces seem so familiar to them".

One of the strongest connections between Bangkok Hospital and the remaining US facilities that received awards is their JCI-accredited status. When difficult decisions must be made, Dr Duaganet says that staff relate the outcome to JCI requirements. "We don't focus on administration, we focus on patient-focus care, so we use JCI for everything," said the CEO.

Bangkok Hospital currently serves around 3,000 outpatients a day. This impressive feat is only possible due to the dedication that staff show to the hospital's motto, which Dr Duaganet says is "Work well together".

About Bangkok Hospital Medical Center:

Bangkok Hospital Medical Center (BMC) is one of the most technologically sophisticated hospitals in the world today. Located in Bangkok, Thailand, BMC is an expansive state-of-the-art medical campus providing comprehensive medical care through multidisciplinary teams of highly trained specialists. With its four hospitals and broad range of specialized clinics, BMC is equipped with all of the diagnostic and treatment facilities not generally available at local hospitals. The center has received Joint Commission International accreditation and is known throughout the world for delivering world-class, award-winning healthcare.

Source: 1888pressrelease.com Contributed by: DMSMedwire Research JSG Team

Why Kenyans Are Flying Out For Medical Services

Health service pricing has become a free-for-all in Kenya, costing thousands of lives as doctors charge up to 10 times what is recommended by the government.

This price inflation is mainly attributed to failure to enforce pricing regulations and the concentration of policy initiatives on increasing healthcare provision through pay-as-you-go system.

As a result, Kenyans have been left with some of the most expensive treatments in Africa that have kept life-saving procedures beyond the reach of the majority.

Medical insurers say the departure from regulated pricing and a lack of policy enforcement, has seen the price guideline issued by the Medical Practitioners Board rendered close to moribund.

The source of the problem, say analysts, is the health sector’s move to cost-sharing, which is seeing public and private hospitals alike move to entirely unregulated prices.

The resulting

Cost of surgery in Kenya is now so high that doctors easily recoup the cost of their entire training after they perform a handful of surgeries on specific conditions.

For doctors attached to larger hospitals, such surgeries can happen in less than six months. “What is happening in Kenya is tragic,” says Dr Edward Rukwaro, AAR’s general manager for Healthcare and Groupcare who traces the problem back to the introduction of cost sharing in public hospitals that was accompanied by little investment in the facilities to improve the quality of services.

The result, he says, was overwhelming demand for medical services from private providers that culminated in runaway inflation of the cost of medical services.

Over the past five years that the economy has been growing, the government has increased its investment in public hospitals. But this is yet to impact on costs because many users are stuck with private providers where demand still outruns supply.

Many users of health services believe that the cost of medical services, as in all sectors of the economy, are unlikely to come down.

Insurance companies accuse the regulatory authorities of failing to curb runaway inflation in the medical services sector for the cost burden that patients currently bear.

But doctors and private service providers say the real cost drivers are the systemic and policy oriented. They give the example of India where a proactive government policy on generics has significantly reduced the cost of drugs.

Source: bdafrica.com Contributed by: DMSMedwire Research JSG Team

Asia Health Tourism- Building On

THE high cost of medical insurance in Australia, Europe and the US is prompting thousands of people in need of surgery to look further afield.

World-class hospitals in Asia, primarily in India, Singapore and Thailand, are being targeted.

Last year, for example, 750,000 Americans sought cheaper treatment outside the US – a figure projected to reach 6 million by 2010 and 15.75 million by 2017, according to new research by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

Heart bypass operations, liver transplants, joint replacements – the sort of complex procedures that cost many tens of thousands of dollars in a top US, British or Australian hospital – can be done for a fraction of the cost but with the same level of skill in a select group of Asian institutions, according to the proponents of what is known as "medical tourism."

Heart bypass surgery that starts at $70-75,000 in the U.S. is available in India fo r $8,000 and about $16,000 in Singapore – a huge saving for those accommodation packages for family members as well.

With healthcare costs rising rapidly, medical tourism makes economic sense to a growing number of patients in the developed world. State of the art equipment, specialist surgeons trained in North America, Europe or Australia, and use of the latest techniques all help overcome the traditional fear of an operation abroad, Bali says.

In the process, a new globalized industry is being created. India, for example, hosted 225,000 international patients last year, generating $430 million of revenue. By 2010 that figure is likely to reach $1 billion.

Singapore draws 400,000 overseas patients a year, while Thailand’s massive Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok alone caters to 400,000 international visitors among its 1 million
patients a year.

The Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea also are in the Asian picture. Along with Bumrungrad, among the top hospital groups are India’s Apollo, Wockhardt, Max and Fortis, and Singapore’s Parkway Holdings.

From the U.S. perspective, Deloitte says the expected "explosive growth" in outbound medical tourism over the next three to five years, along with the rise of retail clinics, will challenge the status quo of the traditional US healthcare system.

Outward medical tourism in 2007 represented almost $16 billion in lost revenue for U.S. providers and could potentially reach $600 billion of lost revenue within a decade, it says.

Source: theaustralian.news.com Contributed by: DMSMedwire Research JSG Team