The
Philippines has long sought to be a major medical tourism destination, and a
new study suggests both why it has failed and why it can succeed in the future.
The study by healthcare business intelligence
firm HealthCORE, indicates that most medical tourism earnings between 2006 and
2010 were from overseas foreign tourists and balikbayans (Filipinos who live
overseas), rather than planned medical tourism by non-Filipinos.
“Philippine Medical Tourism Compendium 2011:
facts, figures & strategies” estimates that the country earned a total of
$1.30 billion from health care and wellness services in the period of 2006 to
2010. The study also projects that the Philippines has the potential to earn as
much as $1 billion in additional annual revenue by 2018 or earlier if it
invests thoroughly on healthcare infrastructures, have more open and liberal
travel arrangements for medical tourists and lay down an extensive
international marketing promotions campaign.
The research says that the Philippines has a
high potential to grab a larger market share in the global medical tourism
industry based on:
- High level of quality in healthcare.
- Competitive cost of healthcare, with lower costs then the USA or
Canada.
- Many competent healthcare professionals
- English language skill.
- A culture of compassion and service.
- Geographical proximity to countries that have expensive medical
services such as Guam and Micronesia, Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
- Top hospitals in the Philippines have state-of-the-art medical and
hospital facilities, are staffed with highly qualified medical consultants,
doctors, nurses and other personnel. At least eight hospitals and clinics were
now accredited by various international accreditation agencies.
The study concludes that-
- The medical and tourism sectors and other related industry stakeholders
should work together and develop broad-ranging strategies in healthcare
infrastructure and service.
- The government should liberalize visa restriction for medical
travellers.
- There is an urgent need for an aggressive international marketing and
promotions campaign to catapult the Philippines in the elite circle of medical
tourism providers.
HealthCORE is not an independent research
body, but a company that aims to develop, project and sustain the competitive
advantages of the Philippines as a preferred global healthcare destination.
HealthCORE is the official Philippine representative of the National
Accreditation Board for Hospital and Healthcare Providers (NABH International)
and offers accreditation for hospitals.
None of these insights or suggestions is new.
The country has a multiplicity of organizations set up to promote medical
tourism, which have spent years bogged down in internal discussion, power
struggles, endless debate and conferences. Although offering lower costs than
in the US, many Asian competitors undercut them.
While health and tourism officials as well as
health institutions are doing their best to promote medical tourism in the
Philippines, Chinese hospitals are beating them through aggressive advertising
to entice Filipinos to be medical tourists in China. In the past months major
dailies carried adverts that boasted of new technologies and innovative
treatment procedures for cancer patients in China. Representatives of Chinese
hospitals even go to schools with a Chinese-Filipino population to do their
promotion. Their target audiences are not the students but the Chinese-Filipino
parents.
An example of the government’s inability to
turn expressions of support for medical tourism into practical help is the
Department of Tourism’s 2012 campaign "It's more fun in the
Philippines" that offers a slogan opposite to what would attract medical
tourists.
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