Dental Pattaya

Medical tourism is a relatively new term used to describe an incredible amount of people in the world that travel the world for health care. Why these people travel and for what differs, but basically there are two types of medical tourists - the regular tourist that adds a visit to the doctor for minor treatment, as part of his vacation, and tourists traveling mainly to medical treatment.

Before there was even a term "medical tourism", it was common practice among the well-done in third world countries to travel to the United States, Switzerland and Germany for medical treatment. However, since 2000, this trend has been reversed and now countries like Thailand, attracting patients from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

This new market has increased by modern systems of health care around the world are struggling to meet the medical needs of their own populations. In the U.S., the price of health care is beyond the means most and there are about 40 million people without health insurance. While Great Britain, Canada and Holland, socialized health care provides access, the demand for medical services far outstrips supply and waiting lists for surgical or medical specialty can be as long as two to three years.

Today, governments, insurers and employers are carefully examining the outsourcing of medical treatment as a means to improve access and reduce costs of healthcare for their citizens, owners and employees.

health care services in Thailand are about half the cost of similar services in Singapore, one third of the cost of Hong Kong and one tenth of the cost to the United States.

Who are medical tourists and what are they to do?

In general, medical tourists travel to specialty medical and surgical services. The recent upsurge in popularity of plastic surgery, however, led to a new wave of medical tourists and titles like "Sun, sea and surgery" or "Scalpel tourism" have helped create a buzz for this growing phenomenon . medical tourism destinations such as Thailand, to promote the provision of high quality medical care as a reason to visit the kingdom.

Optional procedures as outpatient check-ups, dental care and LASIK eye surgery are becoming more popular and there is a growing interest from the tourism industry to include these services under their travel plans. medical services more intensive, such as cardiac and spine surgery, poses a greater challenge because these medical services are not as easily packaged and require much more knowledge about medicine.

Bumrungrad Hospital, located in central Bangkok, is a major player in the field of medical tourism in Thailand, attracting over 360,000 international patients annually from over 150 countries worldwide. But Bumrungrad is not alone. There are a few other hospitals in Thailand and in the underlying regions that are actively marketing their hospitals to capture a slice of this growing market. Both Bumrungrad Hospital and the India-based Apollo Hospital were recently featured on CBS television news program won money on "60 Minutes" as medical tourism destinations for a growing number of Americans.

reliable figures on the size and growth of medical tourism are hard to find since the immigration statistics of the government and have yet to classify incoming travelers coming for medical treatment. However, the Tourism Authority of Thailand is actively promoting medical tourism as medical tourists, on average, spend more and stay longer than leisure travelers.

So if you are the casual visitor will have the advantage of medical and some minor work in Thailand, or if you plan your vacation around your surgery, Thailand is the place to go.