The Philippines Department of Tourism expects to have a national medical tourism plan, highlighting the services offered by local clinics and hospitals, by 2013. One area that DOT secretary Ramon Jimenez wants to promote is stem cell therapy.
The Philippines Department of Tourism expects to have a national medical tourism plan, highlighting the services offered by local clinics and hospitals, by 2013.
One area that DOT secretary Ramon Jimenez wants to promote is stem cell therapy. “To get people to travel for medical tourism we have to offer greater value for money, superior service and specialities that are not available at home.” Jimenez is a strong supporter of stem cell therapy as his wife Abby has a rare but mild motor neurone disease, and uses stem cell therapy treatment herself. The Medical City is one of the few hospitals in the Philippines that offers this type of therapy and Jimenez hopes to promote this to other countries.
Stem cell therapy entails taking stem cells from a patient, a compatible donor, or from other sources. These cells are then modified to fit the specifics of the patient’s condition, and are injected into the patient’s body. Stem cells can come from three sources: bone marrow, peripheral blood (referring to blood circulating the body), and blood from the umbilical cord.
Apart from the Medical City, other hospitals in the country providing stem cell therapy are the Makati Medical Center, St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig, and the Kidney and Transplant Institute. A six-month programme for stem cell therapy in the Medical City is about a third of what it would cost in the USA.The Medical City hospital has had 315 patients who have undergone stem cell therapy since 2005, of which 54 people are from abroad, including the USA, Norway, Singapore and Malaysia.
Aside from promoting stem cell therapy, possible areas that could be part of the medical tourism plan are cancer treatment, orthopedics, and dentistry. The plan for promoting medical tourism in the country internationally will be through the form of road shows and direct selling of the concept.
Having struggled for some time to attract more Americans, Europeans and Asians to the country, the general view is that the key target market should be the 10 to 12 million Filipinos who live overseas. It will be 3 to 6 months before the plan is ready. One reason for the delay is that the three partners – the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Health and the Department of Tourism, all have to agree how to proceed after so many failed campaigns in recent years.
The plan is likely to promote cities such as Cebu which aim to offer high quality medical services and facilities to medical tourists. Two hospitals from Cebu, the Perpetual Succour Hospital (PSH) and Cebu Doctors University Hospital (CDUH), and the Cebu Health and Wellness Council want the province to become the preferred medical tourism destination in the country.
Those involved all agree that to succeed, the country needs to improve its infrastructure and develop policies to improve the country’s positioning as a medical tourism destination. The Philippines government has suggested a target of $3 billion revenue from medical tourism by 2015, but this seems little more than a figure plucked out of thin air, with no idea of how to achieve that.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp (MPIC) is in talks with a number of Quezon City and Manila-based hospitals for possible acquisition or investments, as the country’s biggest hospital group continues to expand its chain.
MPIC, through its hospital group, is eyeing the acquisition or management of several other hospitals in Metro Manila as well as in other parts of the country. The MPIC group now has seven hospitals in its network. The group owns Makati Medical Center, and manages Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan and the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Sta. Mesa. Manila. MPIC has also invested in Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod and Davao Doctors Hospital in Mindanao. It has recently bought Asian Hospital in Alabang, Muntinlupa
MPIC once saw medical tourism as a key growth area but now president Augie Palisoc says, “Medical tourism will be a good medium to long-term for our hospitals but this is not the priority. The main objective is to improve the quality of our hospitals so that they can provide good care for our own countrymen.”
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