Treatment can be expensive. Staying in hospital, performing surgery, control visits etc. And these are not always all the elements involved in carrying out the treatment from start to finish. In order to reduce the cost of treatment, a new sector of the economy has emerged – and more and more thriving. This is medical tourism. It is a branch of tourism that involves journeys taken by patients, often with relatives, to another country or region other than tourist’s permanent residence, in order to use a medical service. The reason for the departure is, among others, the desire for health improvement, specialized medical care, rehabilitation or the use of the SPA & Wellness offer.
Tourism and medicine are two dynamically growing areas of economy. Their interfusion in recent years has led to the intensive development of health tourism. New technology and dynamic development of telemedicine facilitate the communication of doctor-patient, even after medical tourists return to the country. The easier it is to travel to distant places for vacation the easier it gets to visit the same places for treatment and other medical services. Especially when it is beneficial on so many levels.
Due to many reasons for patients to use other countries’ facilities for their diagnosis and therapy medical tourism gain more and more popularity. Patients undergo advanced treatment that may be unavailable in their national medical centres. Often the reason for leaving is the need for the therapy that is illegal or restricted in the patient’s country.
Also the long periods of waiting for diagnostics and treatment in the country mobilize patients to seek solutions in other countries. Health tourism may open possibilities for instant health care or short waiting lists for procedures such as surgeries, transplants etc. Also the comprehensive services that are available on one point of time are of essence when it comes to deciding on particular clinic. Medical tourists are seeking innovative and minimally invasive treatments within short time, they expect rapid regeneration after surgery, where soon after the treatment is implemented complex rehabilitation or wellness. this type of comprehensive approach may not be possible in domestic health system of the patient.
Apart from higher availability of procedures the factor encouraging patients to go abroad for treatment are competitive prices for high quality medical services in medical centres abroad. it is the rule in the area of plastic surgery or fertility treatment that using clinics in many countries is far less expensive than the same scope of therapy in Western countries such as the UK or USA. Due to great competition high quality and specialized staff has become a new standard in medical centres with certification in the medical tourism market. As it is said by the expert of leading ranking service of the branch of In Vitro Fertilization with egg donation – eggdonationfriends.com – the choice of clinic has never been so vast. There are equally experienced and equipped clinics with similar standards and comparable prices all over the world at patients’ disposal and often the only decision there is what type of landscapes and weather would patients prefer. That is because combining treatment with recreation and relax with the loved ones is often very beneficial to the whole therapy’s outcome. Therefore what needs to be considered is not only the standards of health care, range of procedures or success rate but also the individual approach to the patient, help in organizing the stay (accommodation, tourist attractions, transports, etc.)