By Zinnia B. Dela Peña (The Philippine
Star) | Updated December 9, 2013 - 12:00am
Hong Kong – The Philippines should
continuously invest in new technologies, focus on niche treatment and medical
products, and seize untapped markets to boost its medical tourism industry, an
official of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. said.
MPIC operates the country’s largest
hospital network with a total of 2,150 beds in its eight full-service
hospitals.
Augie Palisoc Jr., MPIC executive
director for the hospital group, said medical insurance portability is vital to
attracting more patients, particularly retiring Filipino overseas workers who
will be dependent on medical insurance for their hospitalization needs.
“The transferability of insurance will
open the gates for more people to come to the Philippines,” Palisoc said.
OFWs whose insurance policies are not
transferable could not retire in the Philippines because they could not
reimburse medical expenses from their policies.
Health and wellness tourism in the
Philippines in terms of value grew by 18 percent last year, largely due to the
rise of medical tourism as more foreign tourists and Filipino expatriates flew
to the country to avail themselves of medical treatments and procedures for a
fraction of the cost in developed countries.
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There are four hospitals in the
country that that have been awarded Joint Commission International (JCI)
accreditation for quality and patient safety. These include St. Lukes Medical
Center, The Medical City, Makati Medical Center, all located in Metro Manila;
and Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu.
JCI is considered the authority in
patient safety and quality improvement with a presence in more than 90
countries to date.
The accreditation means the services
offered by a hospital is benchmarked with the highest standards of care and
safety practiced by renowned hospitals around the world.
The most popular procedures sought in
the Philippines are cosmetic surgery, diagnostic testing and imaging, elective
surgeries, prostate surgery or coronary bypasses, and dermatology.
The Philippines, however, lags behind
other countries in the region in drawing health tourists due to its restrictive
policy and uncompetitive business environment, as well as lack of quality
infrastructure.
The Philippines has well-trained
doctors and nurses with high standards of English communication but they
eventually migrate to other countries where salaries are significantly higher
than in their home country.
To attract at least 175,000 foreign
medical tourists annually, the government is ramping up spending on
infrastructure by putting up new roads, bridges, and airports. It is also undertaking an intensified
marketing campaign.
MPIC’s growing healthcare network includes the Makati Medical Center,
Cardinal Santos Medical Center, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Asian Hospital
and De Los Santos Medical Center in Metro Manila; Central Luzon Doctors
Hospital in northern Luzon, Riverside Medical Center in Visayas and Davao
Doctors Hospital in MIndanao.
The hospital group, which accounts for
five percent of MPIC’s portfolio, saw a 24 percent jump in net profit in the
nine months through September to P670 million.
The increase was attributed to higher patient revenues, lower losses at
the nursing schools and tighter expense controls.
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