Putting the Philippines on the Medical Tourism Map

On a Luxury Travel Vacation to the Philippines               

In 2004, total American expenditures in healthcare rose by 7.9%, to a staggering 1.9 trillion dollars or 16% of the country’s GDP (gross domestic product).  This translates to a whopping average of $6,288 per head.  With such rising costs a major problem in health care at home, Americans are now looking eastward to Asian countries like the Philippines for more affordable solutions to their predicament.  They see medical tourism as the answer, and the idea of a luxury travel vacation is an appealing way out of this dire situation.

Promoting Medical Tourism Is on the Philippines’ Agenda

Quick to make the most of such an opportune situation, many Asian countries, the Philippines foremost among them, are doing everything within their power to establish and consolidate the medical tourism industry on their soil.  As elsewhere in the region, many of the Philippines’ prominent metropolitan hospitals have affiliated themselves with the medical tourism industry.  Most noteworthy among them are St. Luke's Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, Lung Center, Asian Hospital, Medical City, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Capitol Medical Center, East Avenue Medical Center, the Philippine Heart Center, and the Philippine Children's Medical Center.  Other top-notch hospitals in various provinces of the Philippines also plan to associate themselves with this movement.  Well aware of the influx of medical tourists due to rising costs, a major problem in health care in their homelands, these hospitals offer world class medical benefits at a fraction of the price.  A medical tourist, who would have to pay anywhere in the region of $20,000 for a bypass surgery back home, could have the same procedure performed in a hospital in Cebu or Davao for a less prohibitive $10,000.  By tying up with luxury hotels and resorts, the hospitals are also able to offer prospective medical tourists a luxury travel vacation to boot.  This has opened the floodgates for an influx of tourists like never before.

Role of the Nursing System in a Luxury Travel Vacation

According to Jade del Mundo, the Health Undersecretary of the Philippines, the country’s medical tourism program is all set to expand to every province of the country in the near future.  A well trained and efficient nursing system is an integral cog in the medical tourism wheel, and plans are underway to ensure that all nurses have access to the best training facilities possible.  These nurses must be able to offer high quality of service to medical tourists who, because of rising costs, patronize these medical packages and luxury travel vacations.

Source: Jerome Douglas, “Medical Tourism Flourishing in the Philippines while US Health Care Costs Skyrocket,” Newstarget, October 31, 2006