Dear Editor,
Medical tourism continues to expand and become a social-economic development driver.
It is emerging as a prime contributor to the social-economic development of various nations. It is enhancing employment opportunities and increasing foreign exchange earnings. It further adds to the increase in living standards and most importantly specialized quality health care.
Medical tourism offers quality treatment and travel opportunities for tourists – an all-in-one package.
There has been an influx of affluent patients from the Middle East to India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand for medical care, resulting in a demand for Arabic interpreters.
Thailand is the number one contender in the medical tourism industry in Asia. Business survey reports show that 60 per cent of the total number of medical tourists per year visit either Thailand or Malaysia. Most hospitals in Thailand have International accreditation.
Medical tourism is a high-growth industry that is driven by globalization and rising healthcare costs in developed countries. More than 40 countries in Asia, America, Africa, and Eastern Europe are catering to millions of medical tourists annually.
Here in the Caribbean, the “Healthy City” of Cayman Islands is a success story in medical tourism. Within the past five years, the ground work was laid and the foundations were built, resulting in Health City Cayman Islands.
Medical tourism in the Cayman Islands has been such a success that Health City will invest $25 million in infrastructure in 2016 and another $100 million in 2017 and 2018 to expand the existing hospital facilities; launch a series of commercial enterprises, including staff housing, a shopping plaza, and commence design work for a 185-room hotel and a marketing plan for a medical school. These are all spin-offs from medical tourism.
With respect to Sint Maarten, private investors are also interested in developing medical tourism on the island, and have been in discussions for the past five years.
For Cayman Islands Health City, their current challenge is keeping up with the increased demand in areas that they originally didn’t anticipate. Outpatient services have increased and this will lead to the expansion of the outpatient section of the hospital by 75 per cent. A new 5,000 square foot oncology and outpatient units will start in the second quarter of 2016 and finishing in the last quarter of 2016 or first quarter of 2017.
There have been discussions regarding a new hospital for Sint Maarten, which would see the expansion of the St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) that would also include a medical tourism wing. Social and Health Insurances SZV have been involved in discussions according to media reports with an Austrian organization.
While discussions continue here, Health City Cayman Islands, which opened back in February 2014, is now expanding to meet future demands in medical tourism.
The global economic environment, since the 2008 International financial market crash, has not yielded or yielded very little in economic growth during the past six years for our country.
Country Sint Maarten needs to see an economic impetus, and medical tourism is an area worth pursuing that could bring that very much-needed growth. Private-sector foreign investment/investor interests has been shown, but we need to move forward in providing the necessary inputs that would allow this sector and the country to become a leading medical tourism destination in the north eastern Caribbean.
The Puerto Rico Government via its Economic Development & Commerce (DDEC) department has made medical tourism a top priority, turning the island into one of the world’s top markets. Puerto Rico’s plan of action for medical tourism entails the creation of 3,000 new jobs over the next three years (started in 2015-2017), US $200 million in additional economic activity, and the treatment of 30,000 patients from outside of the island.
Puerto Rico statistics show that 15,000 medical tourists visit the island annually, spending an average of US $10,000. Family members or a friend who also travel with the patient increase the economic injection of close to US $1000 which is spent on lodging, meals and transportation.
Sint Maarten has the potential to become a leading medical tourism destination.
One of the most important benefits for the people of the country will be having access to medical specialists here on the island. Besides the creation of job opportunities and economic activity across the board for the tourism sector, the people will have world-class medical care which we now have to travel abroad to receive. Can we make 2016 the year of new opportunities and progress in the area of medical tourism?
Roddy Heyliger
