Saturday, November 10, 2007 Thailand preferred over RP in medical services By Joy Romares-Sevilla
A PROFESSOR at the University of Asia and the Pacific claimed that Thailand is the preferred provider for medical services over other Asian countries, like Singapore, Malaysia, India, and the Philippines.
Cherry Lyn Rodolfo, in her presentation on medical tourism during a discussion forum on service industry at the Waterfront Insular Hotel on Thursday, said Thailand recorded an estimated 1.1 million medical travelers at present, the highest number compared to Singapore which only has 150,000 to 200,000, India with 150,000, Malaysia with 122,000, and Philippines with 2,000 to 3,000 medical travelers.
"Medical travelers, (who) were identified in the Philippines, are mostly "Balikbayans", retirees mostly on individual basis, and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs)," Rodolfo said.
Among the five countries, only Philippines has no target revenues for medical tourism.
Singapore targets one million international patients per year contributing US$3 billion by 2012, Thailand target revenues was placed at US$2 billion by 2010, Malaysia aims to have US$1 billion revenues by 2010, while India targets a total of US$2.2 billion by 2012.
Rodolfo cited some weaknesses of Philippine medical tourism. These are the lack of access to market information, accreditation, relatively weak financial capabilities of some hospitals, and migration of health professionals plus the declining enrollment in medicine and allied courses.
"For the accreditation, we have poor documentation and lack of standards for measurement of system or performance in most hospitals. Also, there is a lack of culture for documentation to protect practitioners and institutions and facilitate collection," she said.
Rodolfo also claimed that Filipino health professionals continue to grow in number in the US or UK medical institutions.
"The major drivers for these are the aging population in other countries. The shortage in supply of health professionals, and relatively high costs of medical services," Rodolfo said.
