Volcano Eruption Spurs Tourism Boom In Iceland

With lava still gushing Friday, a small Icelandic volcano that initially sent hundreds fleeing from their homes is turning into a boon for the island
Source: Latest Medical Tourism News

Blood-splattering Protests Wreck Thai Tourism

Better known for its white sands and smiles, Thai tourism is taking a battering as the latest gruesome protests in Bangkok have frightened off visitors to the kingdom.
Source: Latest Medical Tourism News

Medical Tourism- the numbers

One of the issues in being involved in an unregulated global industry is the untruths and exaggerations that abound. While they possibly exist in many areas, medical or otherwise, the number of medical patients travelling overseas illustrates the struggle of indiviudal countries wanting recognition.

A much used quote is that in any war the first casualty is the truth seems to hold true as these countries fight for recognition and legitimacy.  The Lemmings Theory seems to be that by overstating the number of patient travellers to your facility you some how encourage more patients to visit. The more lemmings you say you treat , the more lemmings will follow.

A recent article Medical tourism statistics.Comparing Apples with apples…. hightlighted this by illustrating how some  hospitals count their  patients. It seems in some countries who indicate large numbers of medical tourists, the hospital administrators count each event as a separate patient. hence having an xray is one, the actual operation is two etc. This ends up with one patient having undergone a routine inpatient procedure as having been recorded as 15 patient episodes and (for sake of brevity) this is further shortened by marketing  to 15 patients.

Even well known global consultant agencies seem to fall for the same trick. Deloitte for example published a report in 2008- Medical tourism conumers in search of value, we hear that 400,000 medical tourists went to India and over 1.2 million medical tourists went to Thailand. Unbelivable numbers that appear, well…. unbelievable.

Until therefore there is a global agency such as the WHO that can verify overseas medical tourists numbers, patients contemplating travelling overseas for medical care should do their own research. If you want developed first world and English speaking then your choice is UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. If you want cheap well thats another story. Although there does seem to be a connection between the claim of very large  numbers of medical travelling patients and the third world. While it may be true that they treat many regional Asian patients, the actual number of North Americans who travel to Asia (or indeed anywhere else) for medical treatment , is yet to be verified.

Source: The Medical Traveller

Hyderabad – Hot Destination for Medical Tourism

Chief Minister K Rosaiah has said that Hyderabad is fast becoming a major health tourism center as many foreign patients are opting to get treated here.
Source: Latest Medical Tourism News

Polar Vision and Socialized Healthcare

I’m sitting here in New Zealand feeling frustrated after reading Kinsey Gidick’s article True Tales about Healthcare Abroad. Nothing against Gidick, the article makes for an interesting read.

While the article does a great job of proving a point regarding the exorbitant cost of healthcare in the USA and the Medical Tourism alternatives available, Gidick, along with the vast majority of US media, polarizes the concept of socialized healthcare.

I’m referring to the section entitled “United Kingdom or Magic Kingdom”:

Dr. Evans disagrees. “I had a good friend of mine who lived on the west coast of England who was in his 80s and suffered from terrible chronic neuropathic pain,” he says. “After months of waiting, he was at last able to see a neurosurgeon who confirmed that he needed surgery to correct his problem. They put him down on the books for surgery 11 months out. Granted the surgery and all his care was free, but had he been in this country I could have picked up the phone and had him in a surgical suite in a week.”

Why is it that, regardless of whether they are ‘for’ or ‘against’ socialized healthcare, the US media insist on packaging a nations healthcare up in a nice tidy box that either has ‘socialized’ or ‘not socialized’ (or more correctly ‘American system’ or ‘Canadian system’) written on the front. The reality is that it is not this black and white…

Read the whole article: The Medical Traveller

Study Finds Why Genealogical Tourism is Popular

A University of Illinois travel expert has said that genealogical tourism is redefining leisure travel market.

U. of I. recreation, sport and tourism
Source: Latest Medical Tourism News

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