Medical tourism has been present for years. People from all over the world travel for medical reasons. Some reasons are more serious than others. But what many people don’t know is the importance of medical tourism. It is important for many reasons and for many people. So, if you want to know a bit more about medical tourism and its importance, you came to the right place.
What is medical tourism?
Firstly, let’s simply say what medical tourism is. Medical tourism is when people travel to another city or country to get medical treatment of any kind. This could be dentistry, plastic surgery, organ transplant. Basically, anything that has to do with doctors and medicine.
Why does medical tourism exist?
There are plenty of reasons why people travel to different cities and even countries to get something done. The most usual reasons are that either the treatment is not available in their city or country or the treatments are very expensive. Even if the treatment exists and it doesn’t cost a lot of money people travel because of quality. Having something done the right way is the most important thing when it comes to medical treatments. Some medical treatments are even illegal in some countries and that is why people turn to medical tourism.
When medical tourism started to appear, usually people from around the world traveled to major medical centers in well-developed countries for good-quality medical treatments. But now things have changed. A lot of people from well-developed countries started traveling to third-world countries for medical treatments. The main reason is the lower price.
Countries people most often travel to
People travel to certain countries more often than to other ones. India is the most popular medical traveling destination. Many people from countries such as Canada, America, and plenty of people from Europe also fly to India for better facilities. most preferred cities in India for medical tourism are:
- Delhi
- Bangalore
- Chennai
- Hyderabad
- Mumbai
- Kolkata
- Manipal
- Pune.
People also travel to Singapore, United Kingdom, Malaysia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. But India is the number one on the list.
A little bit about medical tourism in India.
Medical tourism in India is fast growing and becoming world-famous. It is estimated to grow up to $7–8 billion by the year 2020. The treatments given in India are cost-effective for people all over the world. What costs you thousands of dollars to be done in America will cost you hundreds in India. India is famous for its high-end technology usage in treatments and surgeries. Many people don’t know but the standards of treatments are at par with those in developed countries such as America and Canada. Not only that but the working staff in Indian hospitals is very nice and welcoming. People have shared a lot of great experiences online from traveling to India for medical treatments.
Medical reasons people travel for
People don’t usually travel to other countries for small medical interventions. There are people who do it but it is very rare. It is money and time consuming to do that. People travel for departments such as dentistry, fertility, psychiatry, and cardiology. These are very serious and people are ready to travel across the world just to get these things done right. Cancer is also the reason people travel to other countries to seek treatment. You could say that cancer is the number one reason people turn to medical tourism.
Cosmetic surgery is another reason why people travel for medical reasons. A lot of them travel to India but now South Korean cosmetic surgeons have started taking over. A lot of people travel there to get things done on their face. There have been a few cases where people have done so much cosmetic surgery on their faces that they became unrecognizable compared to their passport image. So, if you plan to have something done on your face while abroad, make sure people can still recognize you by your passport image so you avoid having to explain everything and potentially miss your flight back home.
The importance of medical tourism
Medical tourism is not only important for medical reasons but for tourism reasons too. Medical tourism helps in the development of the economy and living standards. It creates more healthcare jobs around the world as well as more healthcare facilities. It increases better global healthcare standards which are very important for the development of medicine. Doctors from around the world can exchange their knowledge this way and by doing this they will be saving more lives and helping more people. Medical tourism improves the quality of life for both those who are getting the treatment and the people in the country they are getting the treatment in. There are also plenty of social and economic benefits. As safe transportation of medicines is important, medical tourism helps that too. It prevents people from illegally bringing medicines from one country to another.
When you travel to other countries to get some kind of treatment the waiting list is either very short or non-existing. This means that a lot of lives are going to be saved. Certain countries have long waiting lists for even some small medical treatments. This takes out a lot of lives yearly. Medical tourism is also great as the people who travel will be able to see something new and exciting after they recover and start to feel better.
Conclusion
Traveling for medical reasons is important and beneficial for many things and many people. If you were thinking about traveling for medical reasons make sure you read people’s advice and recommendations. They can help you decide where to travel to but we believe India is always a good choice as thousands of people travel there yearly for medical treatments.