Medical tourism in South Africa is a rapidly growing industry as visitors from western nations, like the UK, U.S., Europe and Middle East opt to undergo cost effective medical procedures within South Africa. While South Africa has an ailing public health care system, the private sector is among the best in the world with state of the art facilities, an abundance of private hospitals and clinics as well some of the most competent medical professionals in the world. South African doctors are among the most sought after medical professionals internationally from any developing nation.
Medical Tourism – Supply and Demand
While many medical tourists visit South Africa particularly for cosmetic, non-essential ENT, gastroenterology and orthopaedic surgery, a growing number of visitors from western countries are now visiting South Africa for their more essential surgical needs, An overburdened national health care system in countries like the United Kingdom means that conditions that the South African medical fraternity would deem as urgent is often delayed due to a lack of resources. While most of these ‘urgent’ conditions are not life-threatening, they nevertheless require immediate surgical intervention to reduce the patient’s suffering and limit any further complications.
Medical tourism in countries like South Africa has grown in popularity due to the overburdened national health care systems in first world countries. With exorbitant costs for private medical treatment in these countries, a trip to a developing nation like South African means affordable and quality medical treatment along with a pleasant holiday. Apart from seasonal peaks in medical tourism, certain world events also contributes to a rise in sales of medical tourism packages.
Medical Tourism & Sporting Events
The coming Soccer World Cup 2010 event to be held in South Africa, along with 2009 sporting events like the Indian Premier League cricket and Confederations Cup soccer means that visitors who are looking for medical tourism options will visit South African for both a sporting event as well as for their medical needs. With this in mind, the medical industry, particularly surgeons are bound to see a sharp increase in medical tourism enquiries.
The long term impact of the medical tourism boom predicted for 2010 means that first time visitors to South Africa will be able to experience or witness the quality of care and medical expertise available at private health facilities. Undoubtedly, South Africa has a superior infrastructure to its counterparts in the medical tourism industry like India, Mexico, Thailand and the Philippines. Ultimately, the World Cup Soccer will contribute greatly to the medical tourism industry in 2010 and beyond as first time visitors realize that there is much more to South Africa than the images and reports on international news channels.
Medical Tourism & 2010 World Cup Soccer
As the buzz of 2010 fever sweeps through South Africa, most businesses are excited about the economic impact of visiting sports fans. From accommodation, to the food and entertainment industry, South African businesses are ready to profit from the World Cup hype. Similarly, the South African medical industry has prepared themselves for the influx with private clinics, medical specialists and hospital groups marketing their services intensively on the internet.
Travel operators are quick to jump onto the bandwagon and market travel packages targeted at the medical tourism niche. With destinations like India, Mexico, Philippines and Thailand, a medical tourist has a host of options for their next holiday destination but the hosting of the 2010 World Cup Soccer means that South Africa is still coming up trumps in the medical tourism forecasts for 2010.
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