A MEDICAL facility in Mactan Island vows to strengthen its medical tourism services to support the island’s growing tourism sector.
Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan said ARC Hospitals’ continued investments in state-of-the-art medical technologies will support the local government in terms of providing quality healthcare to international and domestic tourists.
“This is a very big help to us, especially that our city is a tourist destination and we have a lot of foreigners who go in and out of the city,” he said.
ARC Hospitals medical director Dr. Alex Alegrado said the number of foreign patients who seek healthcare services at their facility is growing every year.
“We have a lot of foreigners to cater to and they’re very happy that we’re here. We also cater to retirees,” he said.
ARC Hospitals administrator Dr. Jean Loreche said they cater to a significant percentage of patients who are foreigners.
“Around 15 percent of our total population are foreign patients. And we intend to increase that volume especially with our medical tourism tie-up,” she said.
Loreche said they are seeing a big opportunity in medical tourism, an area that Cebu hasn’t fully taken advantage of.
“We are really pushing for it (medical tourism) and it’s in the top of our list,” she said.
Loreche said that plans are underway to fully develop the entire property of ARC Hospitals in Sitio Malinao, Barangay Agus.
After the completion of the first phase of the development, the Alegrado family, Loreche said, will expand the medical facility and later on build a cancer research institute and a retirement village.
ARC’s top foreign patients are Chinese, Koreans and Japanese. The hospital has also served patients from Egypt, United States and United Kingdom.
To make the hospital a tourist-friendly facility, especially to those who have difficulty understanding the English language, ARC has installed a dedicated desk for international patients.
It is headed by international patient liaison officer JC Teng, a Taiwanese who speaks fluent Korean, English and Chinese languages.
Teng has a background in healthcare management.
“By doing this, our nurses and doctors can also practice how to approach the foreigners properly,” said Teng.
According to Department of Tourism 7 data, Lapu-Lapu City welcomed a total of 1,716,938 tourists in 2018.