Abstract
BackgroundTravel for medical treatment is an aspect of globalization and health that is comparatively less understood. Little is known about volume, characteristic and motivation of medical tourists, limiting understanding of effects on health systems and patients. Thailand is amongst a handful of countries that have positioned themselves as medical tourism destination. This paper examines in unprecedented detail volume and characteristics of medical tourists who travel from the UK to Thailand for treatment.MethodsAs part of a wider medical tourism study, authors gained access to over 4000 patient records from the five largest private hospitals in Thailand. These included information on country of origin, gender, age, arrival month, hospitalization, diagnosis, procedures, length of stay, medical expenditure and type of payment. Patient records were analysed to understand who travels and findings were triangulated with data from the UK International Passenger Survey (IPS).Results104,830 medical tourists visited these hospitals in Thailand in 2010. While patients originate all over the world, UK medical tourists represent the largest group amongst Europeans. The majority UK medical tourists (60%) have comparatively small, elective procedures, costing less than USD 500. A significant minority of patients travel for more serious orthopedic and cardiothoracic procedures. Data of individual patient records from Thailand shows a higher number of UK patients traveled to Thailand than indicated by the IPS.ConclusionsThailand is attracting a large number of medical tourists including larger numbers of UK patients than previously estimated. However, as many patients travel for comparatively minor procedures treatment may not be their primary motivation for travel. The small but significant proportion of older UK residents traveling for complex procedures may point to challenges within the NHS.
Highlights
Over the past decade there has been an increase in people traveling to access medical treatment abroad, including a greater number of UK residents who travel for treatment
In the small number of cases where data of the macro level impact of medical tourism on health systems or a countries’ economy exists, it is not linked to individual patient records
It builds on prior work conducted which examined the systems level impact of medical tourism on the Thai health system [3,21] and it extends this through the analysis of patients procedures
Summary
Over the past decade there has been an increase in people traveling to access medical treatment abroad, including a greater number of UK residents who travel for treatment. In the small number of cases where data of the macro level impact of medical tourism on health systems or a countries’ economy exists (mainly for Tunisia, countries in the Middle East, Thailand and the UK [3,14,15,16]), it is not linked to individual patient records. This limits more detailed analysis on the typed of procedures for which patients travel, their country of origin and health and tourism expenditure. This paper examines in unprecedented detail volume and characteristics of medical tourists who travel from the UK to Thailand for treatment
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have