Philippines latest to join medical tourism bandwagon

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Philippines is the latest country to join the world medical tourism destination. With pristine white beaches, lush vegetation, rolling hills and tempting volcanic mountains, the country of 7,100 islands certainly has travel appeal, but the real challenge is to offer world-class medical services at competitive prices.

During the International Medical Travel Conference held last month in Manila, the Philippine Department of Tourism (DOT) announced that it is expecting to raise $40 billion from medical tourism by attracting 780 million patients.

European and American experts in the industry, though, think that the figure is highly ambitious, but also highly necessary to boost the Philippine economy.

DOT Secretary Joseph Durano is quite hopeful that his country’s medical tourism initiative will succeed.

“Statistically, Filipinos are among of the happiest people in the world, something that is shown in the thousands of festivals we have, so we know a thing or two about wellness,” said Durano.

Undersecretary Oscar Palabyab pitched in to explain why foreign patients should choose the Philippines as a medical travel destination. “Our hospitals have state-of-the-art equipment and we also have highly professional people operating these machines. On top of this, medical services here are much cheaper than in the US or Europe, about a third to a fourth of the cost in the developed regions,” said Palabyab.

He also pointed out that Philippines has 2000 private and public hospitals, although only nine of them have been accredited so far by DOT for medical tourism and just two hospitals have international accreditations.

Maria Rebujio, President and CEO of Beverly Hills Advanced Surgery Institute, pointed out, international accreditation is useful, but it is not everything. “In order to attract and gain the trust of foreign patients, hospitals and clinics here must be really opened. That means they must make publicly available all their records and especially the doctor’s records, training and experiences,” said Rebujio.

She opened the Manila branch of the California-based clinic in June this year and she is also considering opening another branch in Dubai.

Dr. Joel Beltran, Director of Business Development at the Asian Hospital, which opened in 2002, said that most of the Middle Eastern patients inquire about kidney transplant. “Our policy is to offer kidney transplant only from living related donors, so we have to refer Arab patients to other hospitals that could provide a kidney,” revealed Dr. Beltran.

By law, in the Philippines only a small percentage of kidney transplants are allowed from non-related living donors. As is the case with Asian Hospital and all other modern medical institutions in Manila, what overseas patients are mostly looking for is cosmetic surgery.

Medical tourism in Philippines

Medical services in Philippines are much cheaper than in the US or Europe

A majority of the patients come from Japan, Australia and the US

Patients are offered full cosmetic packages, including dermatology services such as wrinkle removal and botox injection, as well as cosmetic surgery such as ear hole repair, tummy tuck and liposuction

Philippines has some 2,000 private and public hospitals, although only nine of them have been accredited so far by Philippine Department of Tourism for medical tourism and just two hospitals have international accreditation