Singapore: Medical Tourism on the Mend

The Straits Times today (13 December 2009) reported that thehe medical tourism industry looks to be in the pink of health again.

Things are looking up after the recession — which hit last year and continued for much of this year — caused some pain.

As many countries’ economies have stabilised, industry folk like Dr Wong Seng Weng are more upbeat.

Wong, medical director at The Cancer Centre, said the end of last year was “a quiet period but there’s been a return of confidence”.

Over at Parkway Health, its spokesman said it has seen a “steady recovery” since the middle of this year.

“Generally, in a downturn, patients tend to postpone non-critical surgery,” noted the spokesman.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Parkway’s three hospitals saw a 7 to 8 per cent drop in the number of Indonesian patients.

At Pacific Healthcare Holdings, which runs specialist centres and clinics, things are also looking up. It suffered a 10 per cent fall in medical tourists last year.

“Indonesians form the largest group of medical tourists. The financial crisis last year weakened the rupiah, and there were also uncertainties about the economy and when it would rebound,” said Dr William Chong, chief executive of Pacific Healthcare.

Those in the industry noted that while treatments in Singapore are not cheap, our reputation as a hub of medical excellence continues to be a draw.

Comparing prices, Nanyang Technological University’s Professor David Reisman said a procedure for cardiac bypass costs US$18,500 (RM62,909) here, versus US$9,000 at a reputable hospital in Malacca or Penang.

“The same procedure would cost US$130,000 in the United States, so Asia is still a good buy,” he added.

Medical groups are targeting patients from places as far away as Russia, Germany and Sweden. They are also attracting patients from the US who are covered by their companies, or personal health insurance.

“The medical travel sector is fairly resilient, given that health-care treatments are often a matter of necessity, and we continue to work towards the 2012 target,” said a spokesman for the Singapore Tourism Board.

It aims to attract one million patients by 2012.

Figures from SingaporeMedicine show that last year, 646,000 visitors were associated with the nation’s health-care services, up from 571,000 in 2007.

This number counts both patients and those who accompanied them here, as well as tourists who received incidental health care.

SingaporeMedicine is a government-industry partnership to promote the country as a world-class health-care destination.

Efforts include that of Dr Wei Siang Yu, who founded medical tourism portal Fly Free For Health. Users can get opinions from doctors and nurses online so that they feel reassured about travelling here, said Wei, who has also seen heavier traffic over the last four months.

Certainly, while many people may still be careful about spending, even as the global economy is mending, they take health — a matter of life and death — seriously.

Take the case of Dzung Nguyen, 30, who took his father Nguyen Van Hung, 53, to The Cancer Centre when the latter was diagnosed with gastro-intestinal cancer three months ago.

So far, Dzung, a letter carrier in Vietnam, has spent about $10,000 on chemotherapy, lodging and airfare.

“We’ve been tightening our budget because of the recession, but we decided to come to Singapore. While it’s the most expensive place in South-east Asia, it’s also one of the best and one of the closest to us,” he said.

Is it so as well for Malaysia?