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Thursday, June 29, 2006
DOT 7 drafting scheme to accredit hospitals
For Cebu to tap its potentials in medical tourism, the province needs the cooperation of hospitals, which need to upgrade their facilities to meet world-class health care standards.
According to Department of Tourism (DOT) 7 Director Aurora Patria Roa, world-class health care facilities are one of the requisites of medical tourism.
Hospitals in the province also have to obtain accreditation from various insurance agencies operating worldwide.
“How can we attract medical tourists if their (tourists) insurance companies do not recognize our hospitals and are not willing to pay for the services acquired by their policyholders,” she said in an interview.
Roa said the DOT 7 is now in the process of creating an accreditation scheme for hospitals in Cebu.
She said some hospitals in Cebu like Cebu Doctors’ Hospital and Chong Hua Hospital already have health-care facilities that are world-class.
“They will just have to accredit themselves with the DOT and partner with international insurance companies,” Roa said.
Hospitality
In a separate event, National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas) president Angel Bognot said the Philippines is a potential medical tourist hub because of the Filipinos’ innate warmth and hospitality.
Medical tourism involves providing hassle-free and efficient world-class medical care at a lesser cost in a tropical vacation package that is meant to pamper patients and their families.
Under this concept, a patient communicates with the physician and is given special travel arrangements and hotel or shopping discounts. Upon his arrival, hospital personnel will pick him up at the airport and take him to a beach resort or hotel to rest.
The patient stays in the resort until he needs to go to the hospital.
Once given a clean bill of health, he or she will be taken to the airport.
Earlier, Kainoshealth Management Inc. president and chief executive officer Renato Dumaraos said that there are already a number of tourists who come to Cebu for healthcare.
“We were able to talk to a doctor who said he has been treating foreigners who are (not taken cared of while they are) here,” he said.
Dumaraos said Khainos is taking the initiative to help develop medical tourism in Cebu by making use of the Internet.
“Through our website, we will invite foreigners to come to the Philippines to have their diseases be treated by our accredited doctors at the same time relax and enjoy the country’s tourist spot. We will also facilitate their stay in the province,” he said. (JBN)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 29, 2006 issue)
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