Turning Thailand into a medi-hub

BANGKOK, 14 May 2013: Thailand has ambitions to become a medical tourism hub for ASEAN according to the Ministry of Public Health minister, Pradit Sintavanarong.

He wants to develop Thailand as the top medical tourism destination in the region by increasing business by 10% a year.

“The government aims to generate revenue of Bt14 billion and build on an existing 1 million foreign patients a year that visit Thailand’s hospitals.”

To boost business, a medical visa for tourists will be extended from 30 days to 90 days and will allow four accompanying persons to travel with the patient with the same visa conditions.

Launched earlier this year, the visa is available for patients from six of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

It will also be extended to Scandinavians.

Foreign patients will be encouraged to seek treatment at private hospitals to ensure they are not taking hospital beds that should go to Thai citizens. Public hospitals will focus on developing technology and medical knowledge as well as offering a consistent quality service for citizens, he said.

“Medical conferences should also be organised, in collaboration with Ministry of Tourism and Sports, to promote the expertise of Thai medical teams to the world.”

According to the ministry, there were over 2 million medical tourists who sought treatment in  Thailand during 2012, of which 60% were on pre-arranged medical trips that generated Bt121,658 million in revenue.

Health checks were the most popular medical service representing 18% of all visits, following by cosmetic surgery (14%), dental (11%), orthopedics (10%), and cardiac surgery (7%).

Currently, Thailand has 24 hospitals recognised by accreditation boards in the United States and 11 have been approved for specialised treatment of heart disease, breast cancer, strokes and kidney disease.

Sourced: ttrweekly