" SOUTH KOREA: South Korea hospitals seek more medical tourists.."

A year after the South Korean government began allowing local hospitals to market medical treatment to foreigners hoping to boost its medical tourism industry, progress has been slow, according to a survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The chamber asked 460 local medical institutions, including general hospitals and clinics, about the level of satisfaction in the policy. 93.9 % said progress has not met their expectations. The survey suggests that the number of foreign patients in the hospitals is similar to that of the previous year. 18.6 % of hospitals said they saw a rise in foreign patients while 67.5 % said they saw no change at all. 9 % said the number of foreign patients dropped. This may seem contrary to other figures coming out of the country, but this is explained by the increasing numbers being almost entirely people seeking cosmetic surgery, rather than surgery. One out of five hospitals recruited an average of 2.2 employees to promote medical tourism. Projecting this figure to the 460 hospitals means that the costs of some 180 extra people have to be covered by additional medical tourism revenues.

Most of the surveyed hospitals want to attract more foreigners, but suggest there is a need for improvement in marketing, tourism programmes, communication in foreign languages, and level of services. Also, Korea should focus on providing specialized treatment rather than basic services and promote a high-end image to differentiate itself from other medical tourism destinations.

Korea’s medical tourism industry is still in its infancy. Considering Korea’s high medical standards and its price competitiveness, there is more room for the industry to grow. The Korea International Medical Association, a government-sponsored institution, aims to raise the number of foreign medical tourists from 60,000 in 2009 to 140,000 in 2012.

More than 60,000 foreign nationals received medical treatment in Korea last year, with their spending amounting to $50 million, says the Ministry of Health and Welfare. A total of 60,201 foreign patients including 4,576 American soldiers based in the country went to Korean hospitals for treatment, exceeding the government’s original goal of 50,000.The figure is more than double the 27,480 in 2008.The data was based on reports from 1,468 medical institutions of the total 1,547 registered to offer services to foreigners.

People from the United States (32.6 percent) and Japan (30.3 percent) accounted for the majority of foreign patients, followed by Chinese (11 percent), Russians (4.1 percent), Canadians (2.3 percent), Mongolians (2 percent) and those from the Middle East (1.4 percent). Medical services mainly used by foreign patients were health checkups and cosmetic surgery.