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Dr Khaw Boon Wan, Minister of Health
Singapore's Minister of Health, Dr Khaw Boon Wan, who opened the first International Medical Travel Conference (IMTC) held in Singapore last month, said that more than 1.3 million people travel to or within Asia for medical services every year.
And, with the expansion of the middle class in China and India, this number can be expected to grow, Dr Khaw said. He cited a study that projects a total annual expenditure of S$7 billion for the Asian medical travel market in the next five years.
Recognising the trend, the Ministry of Health launched the SingaporeMedicine initiative in 2003 to "facilitate patients' entry and exit and to ensure they receive good value for money".
The organised approach has worked, he said. In 2002, 200,000 foreign patients came to Singapore for treatment. Last year, the number doubled, representing an average growth rate of 20% a year.
"Patients come from a wide region. Besides the traditional ASEAN market, we also receive patients from the Middle East, Russia, Africa, Europe and US."
Recognising that it is a competitive business and foreign patients now have many choices, Dr Khaw said Singapore was "still learning and benchmarking ourselves against the best in the world".
"Almost all our hospitals have obtained Joint Commission International accreditation, even though we do not impose such a requirement." According to the Singapore Tourism Board (STB)'s Healthcare Division, Singapore has one-third of Asia's JCI-accredited hospitals.
The SingaporeMedicine initiative, said Dr Khaw, is not just for the purpose of attracting foreign patients, but also "for the good of our own Singaporean patients. Singaporeans will continue to expect a high standard of care and at an affordable rate. To meet their expectations, we have to continue to raise our medical standards while keeping cost affordable."
Read more about Medical Travel in this issue
