International medical tourism is now said to be worth between $80 billion and $200 billion annually.
It is estimated that this activity, also known as health tourism, is projected to grow between 15 and 30 per cent each year in the coming years.
With Barbados searching for ways to achieve meaningful economic growth as it seeks to climb out of the ongoing recession, this lucrative tourism sub-sector is one of the areas the island could exploit to achieve the still elusive turnaround.
Medical tourism takes place when patients travel outside of their country to obtain privately funded health care. It is a global practice and there are numerous international facilities, including hospitals and clinics, specialising in the provision of these services.
The existing major example of this in Barbados is the Barbados Fertility Centre, which was founded in 2002. Since then it was announced that the new American World Clinics (AWC) would be transforming the former St Joseph Hospital in Ashton Hall, St Peter, into a medical complex catering to foreign nationals, but this is yet to materialise.
Government agency Invest Barbados is one of the entities which has been closely involved in getting the AWC organisation founded by a number of American investors up and running in Barbados.
One of those convinced about the important financial contribution medical tourism can make to the island is former Invest Barbados chief executive officer Wayne Kirton.
In a written analysis of the issue published last August, Kirton said since the need to diversify and grow the economy was an established fact, it was about time medical tourism’s prospects were clearly defined and accessed.
“The main thrust in industry development has occurred largely in three areas – surgical procedures (with plastic surgery and orthopaedic surgery like hip and knee replacement dominating), dentistry, and cutting edge procedures (like stem cell treatments), but the growth of alternative medicine facilities and general wellness facilities like spas is also a feature,” he noted.
The top ten destinations now providing medical tourism services are Brazil, India, Costa Rica, Mexico, Hungary, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Turkey, and Kirton believed Barbados “may have a significant opportunity to take first mover advantage in the Caribbean in this industry”.
Kirton emphasised, though, that it was important for Barbados to be more efficient in its facilitation of investors interested in developing a Barbados medical tourism sector.
He pointed to the AWC venture and noted that it took people involved in that venture “over two years to get through the bureaucratic red tape in Barbados, during which time the world recession deepened and lenders and investors became a lot more cautious”.
A recent study involving Canadian researchers and local experts including Senator Professor Henry Fraser concluded that while the medical tourism industry in Barbados was “very small”, it was an area worthy of pursuit.
“There is very little active recruitment of medical tourists to the country outside of the Barbados Fertility Centre, although other specialist clinics are attempting to export their services to the international market. However, the creation of the Health and Wellness Tourism Task Force and its associated activities as well as the large investment plans by the American World Clinics Barbados corporation that have begun to be put into concrete motion both suggest that medical tourism may become a larger issue in the country in coming years,” the report stated.
One of those convinced that this is the right direction to take is Minister of Tourism and International Transport Richard Sealy. Last December he said the fusion of medicine and tourism was important for Barbados’ economic development.
Speaking at the fifth anniversary Advanced Eye Care Lecture Series, he said: “It is not just a case of earning foreign exchange because in broadening your horizon, staying on the cutting edge and offering your services to a wider pool of persons, you are taking it to the ultimate extreme in terms of being a better practitioner by having a larger pool.
“So it is not just good for tourism, it is good for medicine, it is being a good physician, it is good for Barbados’ development, and in that context I really do see the need of medical tourism as being extremely important and having significant spin-offs.”
As Barbados pursues this area, however, it will face increased competition from other countries, including The Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos Islands. AWC is also pursuing a medical facility in The Bahamas and indications are that the project there could get going before the one here.
Additionally, last week the Turks and Caicos Islands cabinet announced the establishment of a new Medical Tourism Steering Committee as it formulated a “dedicated medical tourism policy”.