Malaysia serves as an excellent example of the growth of medical tourism.
Medical , as well as dental tourism , was only instituted formally in the medical community with legislation and guidelines in 1999. Since that time Medical Tourism has taken off as an industry in Malaysia both as medical and health tourism. The contributions to the Malaysian economy have been substantial. In the fiscal year 2006 a count total of close to 300,ooo tourists and gross revenue of 32.8 million dollars was achieved.
Posted on 19 September 2008 in Uncategorized by admin
Medical tourism is a topical subject. It depends on which side of the fence you are on – patient , patient with or without adequate funds , on what side of the “patient que” you are on , or is there at queue at all. People travel to foreign countries for products or services all the time . Whether it is someone seeking jewelery or even a salami that is not available “at home” or a Canadian on their way to purchase a Canadian NAFTA Canadian made Toyota only to discover that when the costs are all counted they are ahead of the game financially and even had a sort of holiday or vacation to boot. It may be true that the lovely people at the border may make your like difficult, even if you are well prepared – but at the end of the day you have your car and your savings and that’s that.
Medial tourism is no different. Patients travel to foreign countries in order to receive medical care or medical care , or pharmaceuticals that are not available at home , at a price they can afford , the wait time is too long , or perhaps they wish to have their medical services , and their recovery period away from prying eyes – often in the case of cosmetic surgeries.
In fact , the numbers bear up the increased popularity of “medical tourism”. Recently Deloite – the international respected consulting firm came up with the conclusions that during the fiscal year of 2007 an estimated 750,000 Americans travelled abroad for medical care. In fact the prevailing estimate that by the year of 2010 the number of American medical tourists may swell to 6 million patients.