Thailand for Health

While Thailand is known as the "Land of Smiles" it is in effect much more than this. It combines third world pricing with first world standards of service. This applies especially in medical care. Long before the term "Medical Tourism" was coined, tourists were discovering the high level of service and care in Thai hospitals.

Many countries in Asia now style themselves as 'Medical Tourist Centers', but the difference between them and Thailand is that those countries are now seeing an opening in a growing market and setting up facilities to fill that market, while here in Thailand the market grew organically. Private hospitals, clinics and health spa's were developed over the years in response to tourist needs and in turn the tourists discovered that the Thai values and traditions made the services provided in these centers much superior to what they were used to back home, and at a fraction of the cost.

Medical care in Thailand is equal to and in some cases superior to that in the western world. A lot of Thai doctors, surgeons, dentists, orthodontists and therapists have had some or all of their training in Europe and the USA. All the private hospitals in Thailand (and there are more than 400 such) operate to ISO standards. Unlike western hospitals, where patients are treated as 'clients', in Thai hospitals patients are considered as 'guests' and treated as such.

Over the years, as this medical market grew, the medical establishment saw its potential as a money earner. The private hospitals began to ensure that their staff had good language skills, especially in English, and also began to invest in 'high tech' equipment and medical procedures. Most of these private hospitals now have facilities that equal if not surpass five star hotels, and all are multilingual. As a result of all this investment, over 600,000 foreign tourists came to Thailand for medical treatment last year.

The medical tourism market began with the simple things. Medical check ups at a fraction of the cost in the USA and Europe, with the results of the tests provided on the same day. Elective medical procedures and dentistry and eye treatment, again at a fraction of the cost but now caters for all medical procedures up to and including life saving procedures like heart surgery.

To be a success medical tourism needs a number of factors.
1. It has to be inexpensive in comparison with the tourists home country.
2. It has to be of an equal medical standard.
3. It should ideally provide better service and provide something other than the medical factor, that is usually sun sand and sea.
4. Waiting should NOT be a factor.

Thailand fulfills and exceeds all these criteria and is a brilliant holiday as well.

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