Siam safari with a medical twist

Few months back, a dog near my villa mistook my foot for a hamburger and pierced its front teeth quite firmly. Though  it went back calmly, I was left bedazzled as to what next I would do, as it was late evening and no known hospitals close by. Luckily, a colleague came to my rescue and took me to Phuket International Hospital. While the admin staff and nurses were busy dealing with my wound, I saw many foreign nationals in the hospital. I was pondering as to how come so many nationals from other countries cud get sick in one time and descend upon the hospital though back in the mind I knew that Phuket being popular tourist destination might have its own share of tourist accidents and sickness. My colleague reading my thoughts intervened and said they are here on a medicinal picnic. I shot back at him – medicinal what ? picnic in hospital ? I was so engrossed with physical pain in leg and mental pain about my medical bill, that I dismissed that as some kinda jargon scheme either floated for westerns or for medical/doctors fraternity to benefit.

Later one day at our hotel, one of the guests at breakfast was asking me direction to one of the famous hospital. He was also inquiring about the general hygiene and other local stuffs. I told him about the relative safety of hospitals here and asked him citing at the cheerfulness of the morning hour, as to shouldn’t he be planning trips to Phi-Phi island or James Bond island instead. I was taken by surprise when he said that he has come to Phuket to get a hip replacement operation.

I was amazed as to why one would come to Phuket ignoring its lovely beaches and superb atmosphere, to get into certain complex surgery. I repeated this incident to the same colleague who had taken me to hospital the other day. To which he explained that this is called medicinal picnic by tourists or rather more famous  and  known term coined by economists as medical tourism. I learnt that due to high cost of medical treatments in ones own country, with waiting time and all, people from other countries visit nations which cud provide same treatment with same or better quality and importantly being lighter on wallet. 

With continuous work on computers, few weeks back, I had developed soar eyes and my HR dept took me to the Bangkok Hospital in Phuket town. The lobby of the hospital was so beautiful that I have never seen such a reception in my entire hotel professional life. Back in India, when one visits a hospital, the first thing that strikes you is the typical odour of medicines. Here it was so clean and tidy. For my return trip back home, my driver was struck up somewhere in traffic, running him late to pick me up. So I took this opportunity to talk to the lady at the counter about the touring community from different countries coming to their hospital for treatments. She answered my queries.

She told me that since medical facilities and infrastructure in Thailand are with par with any developed nation and costs are quite affordable, many foreigners come to get themselves treated here. These medical tourists do their homework beforehand by checking the various accreditation earned by hospitals like from JCI (Joint Commission International), ISO to name a few. Due to huge influx of patients from other nations, most of the big hospitals have a department or team who handle such exquisite foreign national patients. This core team handles transportation arrangements including ground or air ambulance, coordinates the admissions, scheduling appointments, hospital stay, assisting in financial arrangements including dealing with third party insurance companies and smooth discharge back to home country.

 

Compared with neighboring countries like Singapore, the healthcare cost over here is half and one-third compared with Hong Kong. So its not a wonder why Europeans and US nationals come to Thailand since the cost here its about 10-15 times more cheaper. People come here for wide range of treatments apart from the normal dental and cosmetic surgeries like face and forehead lift, liposuction, nose correction and neck lifts, the affordable price with professional services for hip or knee replacement surgeries, infertility treatments, drug rehabs are also high in demand.

Though Thailand is a developing country, hygiene and safety in prime hospitals are not compromised. Though there are no major viral threats, there is also no special vaccinations which are  recommended before coming here. Getting a treatment in such a gorgeous tropical environment, with lovely beaches, luxurious spas, entertainment options would surely be a dream for many.

Anyone ever imagined why Bollywood actress don’t get tired of twists n turns dancing routines in every alternate typical Bollywood movie songs, well the answer is many of them frequently visit the kingdom of Thailand for their cosmetic needs and rejuvenate themselves in various health spas here. So if somebody next time says that medical tourism at Thailand is a blessing in disguise to keep Bollywood ticking in world scenario, it should not be taken as flippant or frivolous enuf !