Medical Tourism in Asia

According to CNN, the most popular tourism destination in Asia is medical tourism. Patients from all over the world visit various Asian countries for the purpose of recovery or treatment.

According to Joseph Woodman, the compiler of a guidebook on medical tourism called Patients Without Borders, two to three million tourists travel annually for medical treatment. And data provided by the consulting firm Deloitte show that more than 750,000 American citizens visited medical resorts the previous year.

Among Asian countries, India, Singapore and Thailand lead the way in medical tourism. There are several private clinics that accept foreign patients for treatment.

Bumrungrad International Limited (BIL) is a group of clinics in Thailand consisting of more than 70 healthcare institutions in seven countries. Over 400,000 international patients are treated annually at one of the largest clinics of this network in Bangkok, including about 90,000 patients from the Middle East.

Singapore is home to the Parkway Health network of clinics, which admitted about 450,000 foreigners for treatment last year. And India's Apollo Hospitals Group reports that it has treated about 60,000 overseas patients in the past five years.

A guarantee that treatment at these clinics meets international standards is the accreditation of several clinics from the JCI (Joint Commission International) network. This commission focuses on the accreditation of American hospitals.

According to an interview given by Ajaya Jha, head of neurology at Max Hospital in New Delhi, CNN has learned that tourism for medical treatment in India is popular due to the lower prices for services compared with European or American clinics.

More affordable treatment by world standards in Asian countries is attracting more and more Americans, regardless of whether they have health insurance.

Treatment in developing countries can be one-quarter cheaper. For example, heart surgery in Wockhardt hospitals will cost 8500$, while it will cost 100,000$ in the US and about 28000$ in the UK.

In addition to the money issue, the choice of private foreign clinics also depends on the sometimes long waiting lists for surgeries in developed countries. Therefore, people are forced to undergo treatment abroad.