November 17, 2005
Medical Value Travel
Certain prties in India want to replace the term medical tourism with the term medical value travel to better position India in the world marketplace. They feel the distance from countries that do medical tourism will highlight that India does more complex procedures including organ transplants.
"We need to position ourselves differently. We are not doing just low-end medical jobs. We have world-class facilities in expert areas such as heart care and even liver transplant. Countries in south-east Asia region which have done good in medical tourism most of the times do simple procedures. We don't want to dilute our medical expertise by the term medical tourism."Posted by James Trotta at November 17, 2005 11:53 PM
Hate to burst India's bubble. Thailand and Singapore are light years ahead of India despite the backdoor attempt to claim otherwise.
"Countries in south-east Asia region which have done good in medical tourism most of the times do simple procedures"
The operative words here are "south-east Asia". Thailand and Singapore are both south-east Asian nations with large numbers of foreign patients visiting for medical care.
Thailand and Singapore have been doing organ transplants years before India started. Singapore has one of the world's best liver transplant physicians. Thailand was recently selected by an American physician to be the site for clinical trials of a revolutionary adult stem cell procedure that shows promise in restoring cardiac function in damaged hearts. Time Magazine had an article on the procedure a couple of months ago. Nearly all of the first group of patients, which included some Americans, were quantifiably better.
Last year India treated less than 150,000 foreign patients. Thailand treated over 1,200,000. The environment outside the hospital is much more pleasant in Thailand and Singapore. There are paved road and super highways throughout both countries. Electricity works 24/7. Sanitation is considerbly better too. I would not want to be a patient with post op impaired skin integrity in a country with sanitation problems. The hospital may be safe but post discharge recovery in the local community would likely put the patient at risk.
The cost to the medical traveler is lower in Thailand than Singapore. In Thailand the unassuming Thai people are generally pleasant and easy going. Personal safety is better too. The US Consular Service warns Americans not to travel alone in India particularly women. Women are subject to "eve teasing" if they travel alone. Thailand has no such warning nor does Singapore. In fact the US Consular service says Bangkok has a lower crime rate than many big cities in the US. In Singapore major crimes against tourists are uncommon. The US Consular service says Thailand's hospitals are generally adequate throughout the country with Bangkok having excellent facilities. Medical care in Singapore too has an excellent reputation.
India may have big plans but until she address the poor infrastructure, sanitation and other issues, only the fool hardy will go there for treatment. Backdoor insults to other countries in the region will not fix India's problems.
Posted by: Neal R. Yerkes, RN at March 20, 2006 10:58 AMHmmm. Seems that in my quest to eradicate spam I've accidentally deleted some of my and Neal's comments. I can't remember all of the important points Neal brought up, but I remember saying that in terms of marketing, neither Thailand nor Singapore has a well-known reputation for being a place for complicated surgeries. This means that even if sanitation in Indian cities is inferior (not that Bangkok is totally clean) they may still be able to market their image effectively.
Posted by: James Trotta at March 29, 2006 10:27 PM