Medical Tourism: The Risks Associated

Medical tourism (also called medical travel or health tourism) is the rapidly-growing practice of traveling to another country to obtain health care services. Such services typically include elective procedures as well as complex specialized surgeries such as joint replacement, cardiacdefine surgery, dental surgery and cosmetic surgeries.

Medical tourism can come anywhere from the world e.g. Europe, the UK, the Middle East, Japan, and the US. This is because of their large population, comparatively high wealth, the high expense of health care or lack of health care options locally, and the increasingly high expectations of their populations with respect to health care.

Factors that have led to the recent increase in popularity of medical travel include the high cost of health care or waiting time for procedures in industrialized nations, the ease and affordability of international travel, and improvements in technology and standards of care in many countries of the world.

However, the main pushing factors for medical travel are convenience and speed. In developed countries public health-care system is taxed so much high that it could take considerable time to get non-urgent medical care, whereas, in developing countries like Singapore, Thailand, India or Colombia, a patient could feasibly have an operation the day after their arrival.

Risks of medical tourism:
• Travel back home soon after surgery can increase the risk of complications.
• Long flights can be bad for those with heart (thrombosisdefine) or breathing-related problems.
• Scars become darker and more noticeable if they sunburn while healing.
• If complications arise, patients might not be covered by insurance or able to seek compensation.

Threats Involved:
• Medical tourism could worsen the internal brain drain and lure professional from the public sector and rural areas to take jobs in urban centers.
• It is absurd that a country that cannot provide basic health to most of its citizens should try to be a hub for medical tourism.
• Doctors will be weaned away from specializing in ailments that concern the masses at large like AIDS, tuberculosis, to concerns that affect a section of people such as obesity or cosmetic surgery.