Travellers discover that taking time out for a medical while on holiday in Thailand pays off.
Terri Roamer
If you are looking for Thailand’s most resilient tourists the chances are they are enjoying a coffee, or a green tea, in a hospital reception lounge.
This is not the usual hospital waiting room by any means. The department’s brass plate will probably identify the plush five-star environment as a wellness or life and health centre.
Inside, the scent of jasmine, or some other soothing fragrance, is more likely to catch your attention than the customary antiseptic odour associated with hospitals. Background music helps to enhance the calming atmosphere replacing the harsh announcements that order you queue for your medicine or wait for a number.
Welcome to the world of Thailand’s highly successful medical tourism business. In less than 10 years, medical visits have reached an annual 1.8 million and are rising by an impressive 10% a year. It has turned Thailand into a remarkably successful centre for a variety of medical treatments and heath checks.
Medical tourists travel year round and often take their families in tow for support. They recuperate after treatments by booking post-medical holidays and they apparently are unshaken by economic downturns, or political upheavals that worry the rest of us.
Many of them are in perfect health. They subscribe to preventative medicine, the annual check-up, or they want to improve their lifestyle through wellness programmes that will tweak diet or introduce exercises and spa treatments into their daily life.
They visit Thailand’s hospitals for annual check-ups, dental and corrective eye surgery as well as skin care. They may attend a hospital’s “life centre” to improve their diet, lose weight, or tone up their physique under the watchful eye of experts.
Even as other tourism segments faced challenges from global recession, or perceived security worries in Thailand, since 2008 medical tourism flourished, expanding to the point it now contributes revenue exceeding Bt150 billion annually for the country’s economy.
Not a bad performance for a sector that was largely unknown a decade ago. Today, medical tourism and the associated spa industry are probably the fastest growing segments in Thailand’s varied tourism business.
Let’s face it, medical tourism is surrounded by contradictory emotions. The last place most of us want to be on holiday is in a hospital. But even that traditional argument weakens when hospitals create a relaxing, plush environment that has us all wondering whatever happened to the glaring white walls and drab green floor tiles?
Medical tourism brochures tell us how we can combine health care and travel. It might include a comprehensive annual check-up followed by a holiday in a luxury resort on one of Thailand’s white sandy beaches, well below the cost of just a health check back home.
Those who are heading for more serious corrective medicine can save 20 to 50% off the procedure costs by checking in one of Thailand’s 30 international hospitals, mostly located near major tourist destinations.
The savings are substantial. The bill for dental and eye care drops by 70%. Cardiac procedures such as heart by-pass surgery (US$130,000 in a US hospital) are a good 50 to 70% cheaper in Thailand (US$15,000 for a by-pass).
For ex-rugby or football players, a knee replacement procedure in the US costs US44,000, compared to US$10,000 in Thailand. Margin enough to combine the treatment with a week-long recuperation at the beach and still come out of it financially smiling.
Thailand’s medical tourism boom started with this tangible cost incentive, but it also embraces other advantages such as the gracious service of nursing staff on par to what guests enjoy in five-star hotels.
Treatments are executed without delay for both day patients and those admitted. Wait-lists are rare for most treatments and queues are short, a fact that always amazes medical tourists from the UK.
Bangkok’s top hospitals have centres for international visitors with language specific staff to assist in explaining the diagnosis and treatment.
Most international hospitals have specialised diagnostic and treatment centres such as heart, skin, oncology, orthopaedic and paediatric. Beyond the main stream international hospitals, there are specialised, smaller hospitals that concentrate on dermatology, eye care, gender realignment and plastic surgery.
At the top of the medical tourism tree are 15 international hospitals that have been accredited by the US-based Joint Commission International. Founded in the 1950s to raise the standard of US hospitals and healthcare services, it accredited 15,000 institutions before expanding into international accreditation in the 1990s. Worldwide there are now 140 hospitals that have met its stringent conditions.
JCI accredited hospitals are located in Bangkok, Nonthaburi province (adjacent to the Thai capital), Phuket, Pattaya and Chiang Mai. These international hospitals are the backbone of Thailand’s medical tourism and have successfully outpaced competition to gain an enviable lead in what is a very competitive business.
Overall, there are 200 hospitals in Thailand that have gained accreditation with various agencies other than JCI. The JCI hospitals are listed on the commission website with links to the individual hospital’s websites.
Thailand’s medical tourism success is based on three distinct advantages – cost incentives, high quality service and the support of sophisticated tourism industry offering an attractive recuperation options in destinations across the country.
Destinations that can support medical tourism with full travel services, air services, sophisticated shopping and a variety of accommodation options are Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket, Samui and Chiang Mai.
Apart from quality hotels located close to international hospitals these destinations offer self-catering apartments rented, on short one-week options, or long-stay for a month or more at rates starting at Bt10,000 a week to Bt30,000 for a month. Usually, they are located within walking distances of international hospitals.
There are also clusters of boutique hotel specifically catering to medical tourists, while there are five-star hotels that offer promotional rates for medical tourists usually in the off peak months June to September.
These features have been successfully positioned as the country’s “health travel brand” giving Thailand a strong competitive edge to claim the accolade Asia’s leading medical tourism destination.
One of Thailand’s leading international hospitals calls medical tourists the “intentional travellers.”
They are not popping into a hospital as accidental visitors with an emergency on their plate. They plan their medical visits well in advance, check their insurance cover and tag on a holiday experience as a bonus.
But the fact is you could pop by unannounced if that was your inclination. The system works equally well for travellers who are already visiting the country. Perhaps on the spur of the moment they decide they have the time and cash to sign up for a bargain physical check-up, or to get their enamel tapped and prodded in a dental chair.
We hear it all the time: “Savings on dental work paid for this trip; unbelievable.” Or they tap a new pair of classy bifocals: “Got the eyes checked for a fraction of the cost back home. My holiday is a bonus.
There are also plenty of examples that show how speed and timely treatment is worth its weight in gold.
In the UK a resident notices a wonky mole; sensitive, itchy and changing colour. What will all the alarm bells on the dangers of tanning they worry it could be cancer. They make a doctor’s appointment and wait a month. Their GP (general practitioner) refers them to a skin specialist at a nearby hospital. They wait another six months for an appointment.
Eventually, diagnosed with a common skin cancer the patient joins a queue for a minor operation that is ultimately scheduled eight months after the initial doctor’s appointment.
As this drama unfolds, a close friend is on a long-stay holiday in Thailand. Coincidentally, they too are worried about a suspect mole and they pop by the skin centre of one Bangkok’s top international hospitals.
It’s 0900 on a Tuesday, and not much to do other than go shopping in the rain. By 1000, the English speaking doctor examines the mole runs some tests and gives him the news that he has the identical cancer that afflicted his mate back in the UK.
The difference is that the long-stay tourist in Bangkok is all smiles on Wednesday of the same week after undergoing a successful minor operation. Three weeks later he returns to the UK and asks his mate if the appointment with the skin specialist has arrived in the mail. It hasn’t.
“You lucky so and so,” his mate declares when he hears that an unintentional medical traveller was treated speedily in Thailand and sent on his way to continue his holiday all within 48 hours.
“Done and dust in two days, and cost next to nothing; great service friendly nurses, what more can you ask. It’s magic,” the happy traveller exclaims.
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