Disadvantages of Medical Tourism
Although medical tourism is now a fast growing industry with billions of dollars in sales each year, it is like most other things in life. Where you find advantages to the system, you will also find disadvantages to the system. Today, many people are travelling to foreign hospitals for surgeries and medical treatments that cannot get at home, cannot afford at home, or may encounter wait times due to the high demand of the services. While this seems like a great solution, usually the decision to do this is based on finances and that is not always the only thing to base your medical services on.
As you may or may not know, not all countries are created equal when it comes to licensing boards and educational systems. Going to a foreign country for medical treatment, no matter how luxurious it is or how much cheaper your treatment may be, it may not always outweigh conditions you may find there. Some of the disadvantages to obtaining medical treatment in foreign countries include:
- Not all countries have the same educational or certification standards as your home country does. While the United States and Europe are typically on par with similar requirements, the same cannot always be said for countries in other locations. While many physicians in these locations are very talented and fully qualified to perform your procedures, it pays to check around on credentials. Begin with your family practice doctor, who can often give you the right questions to ask.
- Less emphasis on post-operative care. The foreign hospitals get you in quickly, but also get you out quickly providing you with little or minimal care after the service has been delivered. You are left to fend for yourself for the most part, and unless something serious develops, you must monitor your own recovery. They may bring you in and ship you out. Therefore, the better candidates for receiving some services overseas may be those who are more educated about their health conditions or more proactive about lining up the needed recovery care.
- You may find your immunity is not equipped to fight viruses and infections encountered in a strange land. The timeframe around receiving medical care leaves you open to infections, just at a time when you have lower resistance to disease. This can result in serious infections that often remain untreated until the patient returns home and has the added expense of medical treatment at home.
- You will likely be travelling immediately after a medical procedure. Whether it is from the medical center to you recovery destination, or hopping on a plane back home, being sedentary for long periods of time is always risky, even more so after major medical care. This could result in you suffering a pulmonary embolism, blood clots, or haemorrhaging or undue swelling, which is some surgeries, could result in serious complications.
- And last but not least, by seeking medical treatment in foreign lands you would have very little legal recourse available to you should anything go horribly wrong. You give that up when you decide to shop outside your home country and the protection it offers.
Today, because the numbers are growing and more and more people are travelling to foreign hospitals for medical treatment, the word "Malpractice" has come into play in a big way. Governments all over the world are watching as this industry grows alongside the medical tourism industries. Unfortunately, when a procedure goes horribly wrong, the only recourse open to most patients is the legal avenue of "Malpractice", which often results in nothing or little being done. As with most things in life, these foreign treatment centers have a tendency to sell the advantages and avoid the disadvantages when advertising what they can do for the patient. Often "Malpractice" laws are different in every country so you may find yourself not only paying additional medical expenses at home for additional surgery, once botched, but you may also find yourself not able to recoup any of your losses either.