This article explains the medical tourism industry, it's history, advantages and the disadvantages and why one should opt for a medical treatment abroad

1. Overview of the Medical Tourism industry
Many developing countries don’t have proper healthcare treatment. They are
unable to carry out severe operations and surgeries. That’s the reason patients
travel to other cities or countries to resolve problems related to healthcare.
Health tourism has immense possibilities and success rates. Many people travel
to find better, affordable, and hassle-free healthcare services in other parts of
the world.
What is Medical Tourism?
Medical tourism refers to travel where tourists travel from one country to
another for health treatment purposes. Typically, when people travel from one
place to another, then that is for entertainment purposes. Still, this travel aims to
cure some diseases, take up therapies, or for rehabilitation purposes. Hence, it is
considered medical tourism.

2. People come from various places to a specific country to have good nursing,
care, doctors, therapies, and medication that solves their health problems.
Pollard, International Medical Tourism Journal in 2011 defined a medical tourist
as, “A medical tourist is someone who travels outside of his or her own country
for surgery or elective treatment of a medical condition.”
History of Medical Tourism
The Medical Tourism industry began its set of experiences during the 1930s. It
became mainstream among the USA and European nation’s well-off inhabitants,
who needed excellent quality wellbeing services abroad. Since 1983, maintaining
good health has been consumers’ first concern, and, as indicated by the Future
Foundation’s Changing Lives Survey, it will continue to be the same way in the
future.
Types of Medical Tourism
People going for clinical consideration because of moderateness, better
admittance to mind, or a more elevated level of nature of care is called
International Medical Tourism.
International Medical tourism is further divided into two types:
1. When people come from other countries to a country, then this is known
as inbound medical tourism.
2. When people go out of a country from their origin to other countries, this
is called outbound tourism.

3. Individuals who live in one nation and travel to another city, area, or state to get
clinical, dental, and careful consideration while simultaneously getting
equivalent to or more prominent consideration than they would have in their
home city is known as Domestic Medical Tourism.
Benefits of Medical Tourism
Medical Tourism contributes massively to the tourism sector. Many people travel
from less-developed healthcare countries to developed healthcare countries.
This increases travel and contribute to the country’s economy. It creates
healthcare-related jobs and facilities, incorporating the latest technology,
participation in global healthcare, socio-political, and economic benefits,
participation in global healthcare and increased global healthcare standards, and
improves the quality of life.
Reasons to Choose Healthcare Services Abroad
Medical tourism has become popular in post-pandemic times. It has been
proving an effective way of availing excellent healthcare services if good services
and care are not available in your area or country. People consider traveling
abroad either for leisure or for treatment purposes. Following are some of the
reasons why people travel abroad for medical purposes:
1. They are disappointed with the current treatment in their origin country.
They are not satisfied with the treatment, and the problem is not sorted
out.
2. The treatment can be time-consuming.

4. 3. The treatment can cost a lot of money as there are fewer doctors available
in that area.
4. To practice greater mobility.
5. To have a zest for traveling the world.
6. Unlike local treatment, there is no waiting list.
7. High tech technology is used with high accuracy, speed, and success rate.
8. Because of the growing popularity of medical services abroad.
9. Also, to escape from the current country.
Drawbacks of Medical Tourism
Though medical tourism can be a good solution for advanced healthcare
treatments, it also possesses various issues and challenges. Some of them are as
follows:
Follow-up Problems – follow up care is extremely challenging in the clinical and
travel industry. If a patient gets a disease or different issues after a medical
procedure after returning to his own country, then, at that point, there aren’t
any grounded follow-up cares in medical tourism.
● Language Barrier
Cultural and language obstructions are a significant issue before the clinical
travel industry. Assuming the clinical staff doesn’t comprehend the patients’
language, the entire cycle becomes hard.

5. ● Lack of Infrastructure
People are going from one country to another developing country for clinical
treatment. These developing countries do not have well-established and
advanced infrastructure. There are numerous issues like appropriate water and
power supply, low-quality food, and an unclean hospital environment.
● Lack of Professionalism
The clinical staff in most developing nations needs polished communication
skills. The soft abilities of the medical workforce like warmth, concern, and
amicability are yet to develop in the staff. The staff may be rude and arrogant to
the patients. This costs the country its reputation.
● Difficulties in Promotion
The developing nations are experiencing the issues of advancement in medical
tourism. There is an absence of value accreditation and guideline in emergency
clinics and other medical service providers. There is no uniform evaluation and
normalization of administration, which creates a boundary in building client’s
confidence in the offered services.
● Rules and Regulations
One of the genuine worries in medical tourism is identified with contrasts in law
in various nations. There is no standard law in the medical tourism industry all
around the globe.

6. ● Organ Trafficking
Most of the world restricts transplant tourism since organs regularly come from
weak individuals. Nonetheless, organs can, in any case, be bought on the black
market. Sometimes the cost of organ transplantation could be too high.
Apart from the drawbacks, health tourism upholds a great future. The more
developed the health care system in a country, the more it will improve people’s
lives. Countries like Dubai, UK, India, Japan, Spain, Singapore, and Canada are
some of the healthcare tourism destinations in the world.
As indicated by the Medical Tourism Index, which assesses the appeal of nations
for clinical travel, a nation’s economy and public picture, medical care expenses,
and nature of care are the central point that drives the clinical medical industry
development in an objective.