Medical-hub strategies drawn up

To achieve the target the ministry has drawn up six strategies to promote Thailand as a medicalservice hub to the international community, said Dr Supachai Kunarattanapruk, directorgeneral of the Health Services Support Department.

"Due to the good reputation of our medical services and physicians' experiences in the past four years, I believe we can achieve this target and benefit more from the medicalhub policy," he said.

The policy was introduced in 2004 to promote modern healthcare services through private hospitals and traditional services such as spas. The number of foreign patients increased from 630,000 in 2004 to 1.5 million in 2007. Revenue from this segment also grew, from Bt16 billion in 2004 to Bt40 bil¬lion last year.

Private hospitals have mostly enjoyed the increasing flow of patients from Japan, the United States, Europe, China and the United Arab Emirates. As Thailand is renowned in the UAE, and the ministry plans to increase the number of patients from there by 20 per cent from 80,000 per annum at present.

Supachai said that to reach the goal, six strategies had been drawn up to further drive the medicalhub policy. First, quality and diversity of healthcare services will be further improved to meet global standards. Certificates from international accreditation institutions are required, while technology must be developed to address chronic diseases.

Second, the ministry will improve the infrastructure to support the service speed as well as access to healthcare services.

Onestop service centres will be introduced to provide a fast track to issue the visa and reserve the accommodation for foreign patients and their relatives to enter country and develop the reimbursement systems with the health insurance agencies of their original countries. This will help them reduce their financial burden while they are staying in Thailand.

The third strategy will focus on a proactive public relations and marketing plan to promote Thailand as a brand in the healthcare industry to make the country recognised in the international community.

As part of this strategy, the Public Health Ministry will promote Thailand as a centre to organise international medical conferences, which would open up the opportunity for local researchers to show medical research to international scientists.

The fourth strategy is a plan to share staff among public and private hospitals, particularly highly skilled physicians and service and hospitality experts. This strategy is aimed at strengthening the range of healthcare services between the public and private sectors.

As the fifth strategy, the ministry will increase staff for health and increase the capacity of medical workers by supporting them with training through international programmes, including undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.

The final strategy will seek collaboration with agencies to manage all strategies to improve the country's capacity for health tourism.