Surgical Tourism

Surgery isn't the first or even the last thing that comes to mind when you think tourism and vice versa. As misnomered as it may sound, but surgical tourism is what is happening in the health care industry today. Surgical tourism, also known as medical tourism, medical travel, health travel and health tourism, is traveling abroad for surgery.

So why would someone choose to go overseas for surgery?

The number one reason is because they can get huge discounts when compared to the price tags on surgeries at home. Surgical tourists claim to have saved from 50% to over 90%. Another reason revolves around the long wait-lists in countries like Canada and UK with public health care system. Some go for elective surgeries not covered by insurance.

Does low cost mean poor quality?

Check out pictures of some of the international hospitals catering to foreign patients at https://www.healthbase.com/hb/pages/hospitals_pl.jsp and you will notice how immaculate their 5-star hotel type facilities are. Their accreditations include those like JCI, JCAHO and ISO. Patients vouch for the personalized service they get. It's not uncommon to see world-renowned surgeons at these international hospitals playing finger-magic behind the latest billion-dollar robotic machines.

So exactly how is such a miracle possible?

Well, that's because in some countries like India, Thailand, Singapore, Turkey, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and others, the cost of labor when compared to the US, UK or Canada is lower. Plus, administrative costs and malpractice costs are also lower. These are the countries that are hot surgical tourism destinations.
Some of the surgeries that patients go overseas for...

Range from breast augmentation to Birmingham hip resurfacing surgery, and from lap band to triple cardiac bypass surgery. And it's not just surgeries that people seek. Some go for therapeutic treatments and others for cancer treatments. Restorative and reparative treatments like LASIK are common and so are preventive check-ups and simple dental fix-ups.

Where is tourism in the picture?