UAE businessman wants Thai hospitals
Thailand's hospitals have met such strong demand from foreign patients that a prominent Qatari businessman and activist was prompted to call on major Thai hospitals to open branches in Doha, so that people from the region can access their services at reduced cost.
The Peninsula daily in Doha quoted Hasan al-Jaffri as saying in a statement yesterday that an increasing number of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals were visiting Bangkok for treatment and paying for it from their own pockets. Some 62,000 people from the United Arab Emirates alone visited Thailand for treatment between June and August. "The figure gives you an idea of how popular the hospitals in Bangkok are becoming with GCC citizens," he said. Al-Jaffri said that in view of this trend, big hospitals in Thailand should consider setting up operations in Doha for the benefit of people in the region as a whole. Chantra Purnariksha, director-general of Thailand's Export Promotion Department, recently said hospital and healthcare businesses had high export potential. Many hospitals are focusing on capturing foreign patients and thus developing their services to serve rising demand. "In a bid to expand their networks out of the Kingdom, those hospitals have explored potential partners abroad," she said, adding that foreign patients liked the lower expense and higher standard of treatment than could be found in their homelands.
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