'Health Tourism' Increasingly Popular in Asia

VOA News 22 / 12 / 2009

Medical tourism brought in $1 billion in 2007 and that is expected to triple by 2012, when the Health Ministry expects more than two million medical tourists

Asia is being seen as a growth center in the globalization of health services thanks to rising demand from developed countries as well as the region's expanding middle class. But there are concerns that so-called medical tourism will shift resources away from public to private health care systems.

Over much of the past 10 years Thailand has led the growing medical tourism market, as foreigners sought lower cost health services and ready access to treatment.

The services available range from complicated cardiac surgery, to cosmetic surgery to dentistry and even alternative care, such as Chinese medicine, yoga and traditional Ayurvedic treatments.

Rising international travel and the availability of information on the Internet have boosted the number of travelers seeking treatment.

In Thailand, as many as 1.4 million visitors arrived seeking medical care in 2007, the most recent year numbers are available - up from half a million in 2001. Medical tourism brought in $1 billion in 2007 and that is expected to triple by 2012, when the Health Ministry expects more than two million medical tourists.

81,018 permanent residents left Australia over the past 12 months

Yahoo 7 News: Kiwis packing bags, leaving Australia

It hardly seems fair. The Wallabies are struggling with a Kiwi at the helm, while the New Zealand cricket team looks destined for great things.

Our neighbours across the ditch have been the greatest beneficiaries of an exodus of Australians with almost one fifth of those who left permanently in 2008/09 choosing New Zealand as their new home.

And having had their share of the good times, New Zealanders topped the list of overseas-born people leaving Australia.

The release of the Emigration 2008/09 report comes in a year which was not so good for our rugby side, with New Zealand-born coach Robbie Deans guiding the Wallabies to only six wins and a draw from 14 Tests.

The figures from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship show 81,018 permanent residents left Australia over the past 12 months, more than any other year on record.

Asia - Medical tourism are booming

Phnom Penh Post Healthcare industry fuels surge in demand for nursing colleges

The healthcare industry is booming across Southeast Asia. Private hospitals in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and even Ho Chi Minh City are flooded with patients from around the region and increasingly from the Middle East, Europe and North America.

They come for annual checkups, heart bypasses, hip replacements, kidney transplants, laser eye surgery and every other kind of medical treatment conceivable, including sex change operations.

And they do it because the quality of treatment is as good, if not better, than they can get in their own countries, and because it costs much less than at home.

The thriving ‘medical tourism’ industry is expected to continue to boom for the foreseeable future because of a heightened awareness of the benefits of quality healthcare and because the world’s ageing populations will require more frequent medical checkups and treatments.

Ten years ago, consumer expenditure on healthcare services and goods by Asians stood at US$90 billion. Today, it is estimated that it will more than double to $188 billion by 2013.

Malaysia, which has focused on markets in the Middle East and China, expects medical tourism to generate revenues of $650 million next year.

Thailand, another thriving healthcare centre, already treats more than 1 million foreign patients every year – and even tiny Singapore hopes to hit that target by 2012 and generate $3 billion in revenue in the process.

Most nursing graduates choose to work in private hospitals because of better pay and work conditions.

But there is one potential hiccup to this wonderfully rosy picture: Where will all the trained nurses and ancillary staff to look after this massive influx of patients come from?

Step forward Malaysia’s Masterskill University College of Health Sciences.

This organisation, which has several nursing college campuses, astutely spotted the boom in medical tourism and robustly stepped forward to provide training courses for medical staff and thus fill a seemingly ever expanding and lucrative market.