Each hospital in Singapore serves about 1 million people annually, 1% of whom are international patients. He said Americans are still in the minority, representing only about 20% of all international business. But the number is growing. “Even without major marketing effort, we're seeing an increase in U.S. and U.K. patients.”
He stressed that his group is not competing with India or Thailand, and is not promoting “medical tourism,” but rather comprehensive affordable state-of-the-art medical services. In addition to treatment and procedures, hospitals in Singapore offer international visitors a wide range of holistic health services, fresh healthy Asian-style food, art and music therapies, and well-designed healing environments of a sort rarely found in U.S. facilities.
Dr. Yap added that this approach represents a strong shift away from the stereotype of medical tourism, which used to mean elective or commodity surgery at facilities with uncertain quality records, questionable marketing methods, and an absence of care continuity.
“Medical travel involves patients going abroad for needed medical care, with minimal leisure components. This is essential health care that, for whatever reason, the individual cannot access at home,” he stressed that medical teams in Singapore endeavor to be part of the normal care continuum and to develop good interconnectivity with the patient's doctors at home. “We prefer that physicians in the patients' home country refer the patient to us. We're not trying to pull patients away from their home doctors.”