The dividends of financial diversification for selling financial improvement are past query. In view of this, financial diversification needs to be one of many precedence areas for motion in Pakistan amid a interval the place it faces declining international trade reserves. Of the numerous potential diversification methods, the medical tourism trade is a promising financial sector that must be developed and nurtured in the nation.
Medical tourism, which includes abroad journey and sometimes over appreciable distances to profit from medical therapies, is booming worldwide. Based on one estimate, 14 million people journey overseas as medical vacationers yearly, and the worldwide medical tourism market is projected to develop to USD 53.51 billion in 2028 from USD 13.98 billion in 2021. Though medical tourism is predominantly a twenty first Century phenomenon, it has existed for a very long time. The primary instance was documented greater than 2000 years in the past when pilgrims from the Mediterranean travelled to Epidaurus in the Peloponnese, often called the sanctuary of the god of therapeutic, Asklepios. However, it has developed tremendously since then, attributable to the developments in data know-how, ease of worldwide journey, medical developments, and the rise of transnational communities.
Whereas it’s usually perceived as a motion from much less developed international locations to extra developed nations, journey from high-income to middle- or low-income international locations to hunt medical remedy additionally constitutes a substantial proportion of it at this time. In some developed international locations, equivalent to america, sure procedures are expensive, or these equivalent to knee development have lengthy ready lists as they’re thought-about non-essential, which compels folks to journey overseas and sometimes to growing international locations to undertake the process rapidly or at a low worth. Moreover, some individuals are uninsured or underinsured for particular medical procedures, for instance, surgical procedure for weight reduction, in their house international locations; or nationwide well being programs refuse therapies, as an illustration, infertility therapies, to particular people due to age.
Furthermore, in impoverished international locations, the amenities and coverings for advanced surgical procedures or sophisticated illnesses are insufficient, thus, resulting in the stream of medical vacationers to wealthier and developed nations. The elite class in some international locations may favor to undertake remedy in locations the place medical requirements are comparatively superior. Generally, the easy need for privateness or combining trip with remedy could drive medical journey. In current instances, developments in stem cell therapies for varied medical issues and illnesses have additionally supplied a serious impetus to this trade. Though stem cell therapies proceed to be questioned and criticised, their rising success stories have been incentivising sufferers to undertake them as a final hope.
Furthermore, in impoverished international locations, the amenities and coverings for advanced surgical procedures or sophisticated illnesses are insufficient, thus, resulting in the stream of medical vacationers to wealthier and developed nations.
There’s mounting proof that medical tourism contributes to financial development in vacation spot international locations because of the income generated by the availability of healthcare companies to the sufferers, in addition to their spending on lodging, transport, meals and drinks, and visits to vacationer spots, amongst others. For instance, the medical tourism market in the United Kingdom – one of the vital common vacation spot international locations for medical vacationers – is predicted to succeed in USD 6 billion in 2022. Likewise, the Indian medical tourism market is estimated to be valued at USD 7,417 million in 2022. In Costa Rica, USD 56 million was generated by medical tourism in the primary two quarters of 2022. Many different international locations have been benefitting tremendously from it.
Sadly, in Pakistan, this sector stays underexploited. The one noteworthy influx of medical vacationers to the nation is from neighbouring Afghanistan, and even these Afghans specific dissatisfaction with the companies acquired right here.
Pakistan can function a doubtlessly engaging vacation spot for medical tourism, significantly for the diaspora overseas, on account of their non secular, cultural, and linguistic affinity with the nation. House international locations can function a desired location for the diaspora to hunt healthcare companies as they’ll meet household and mates and obtain remedy concurrently in a single go to. Pakistan is the seventh largest supply of worldwide migrants in the world and, thus, has a big share of diaspora residing overseas, significantly in the Center East, the US, and the UK.
To grow to be a pretty medical tourism vacation spot, Pakistan first must work on retaining the brightest minds in medication by addressing components that make them transfer overseas. Second, it’s needed to speculate in healthcare infrastructure improvement and enhance the standard of services and products in the healthcare trade to foster the utilisation of healthcare assets. Third and maybe, most significantly, new medical procedures, equivalent to these associated to stem cell therapies, that are recognised elsewhere, also needs to be granted regulatory approval in the nation. Lastly, the internationalisation of medical companies requires efficient advertising. Whereas the web generally is a useful medium to try this, it is probably not very efficient because of the overwhelming quantity of data obtainable. In current instances, the position of medical tourism facilitators as efficient advertising sources is more and more being highlighted. Therefore, the nation’s healthcare service suppliers have to type lively linkages with medical tourism facilitators, significantly in locations that may be necessary origin international locations for medical tourism to Pakistan.
