Korea aims to woo one million medical tourists
Its hospitals will need to raise their service and safety standards to qualify to treat foreign patients
South Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) has introduced a model system for evaluating and designating medical institutions, granting medical licenses to 1,560 medical institutions that have met strengthened safety requirements in order to attract foreign patients.
According to the MOHW, the first implementation of the system involves four designated model medical institutions that will play a leading role in providing high standards of service and creating a safe treatment environment for international patients -- Gachon University Gil Medical Centre, Inha University Hospital, HanGil Eye Hospital, and JK Plastic Surgery Centre.
Through the designation of model medical institutions, together with the evaluation of specialised and international patient services and a patient safety framework, the system aims to enhance the South Korean medical industry’s global competitiveness and reliability.
Although the number of medical tourists increased to 364,189 in 2016 from 296,889 in 2015, the government is aiming to raise that number even further to one million per year by 2020 by actively promoting and supporting the various designated medical institutions attract international patients.
Of the nearly 3,000 institutions operating in 2016, about half of them failed to meet the new safety requirements to receive a license, while the remaining will be able to offer treatments to foreign patients and engage in marketing to attract medical tourists over the next three years.
This story was originally published in the Global Health and Travel issue of January 2018.
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