Bumrungrad Hospital in
Bangkok
captures Middle East medical tourism market
By Jon Fernquest
Bumrungrad is Thailand's premier
medical tourism hospital.
The Middle East is the hospital's fastest growing market segment. The hospital treated nine times as many patients from the Middle East as it did in the year 2000.
The year 2000 was a significant turning point because after the September 11, 2001 attacks Western countries became less welcoming to Arab tourists.
Western tourists are mostly drawn to Thailand by its beaches and resorts. Unlike western tourists, Middle Eastern tourists often come for Thailand's international hospitals. Of the 453,000 tourists from the Middle East last year (a 12% increase over last year), 90,000 of them were patients treated at Bumrungrad.
Bumrungrad is marketed as high quality at lower cost. A hip replacement operation costs $35,000 in the US, $12,000 in Thailand, and $6,500 in India.
Adapting to Middle East Culture
The Thai government has a training programme that teaches hospital staff how to deal with health insurance policies from the Middle East and also the special requirements of Muslim culture. So far 50 hospitals have received the training.
Bumrungrad is a leader in providing personalised service for Middle Eastern patients. A manager of Middle East medical services in the hospital oversees 40 Arabic translators, an Imam (prayer leader), a large prayer room, halal meals, and even Arabic coffee, providing all of this so that patients can feel comfortable away from home receiving medical treatment.
Grandmother's Back Surgery and Hip Replacement
Fatima Rashid Al-Hemaidi, from Qatar, is a great-grandmother and mother of ten children.
She broke her back in an accident last year after falling down.
Dismissed as being too old and therefore not worth operating on by several doctors, her family decided to take her on her first trip out of her country. Flying to Thailand, they brought her to Bumrungrad for treatment as a last resort.
Before the surgery, Hemaidi was in such great pain that she had trouble enduring it. After the surgery she could even move without help and walk short distances.
Her treatment at Bumrungrad was paid by Qatar's universal health insurance that covers health care for all of its citizens.
Since the initial operation, Hamaidi has made two more trips back to Thailand, once for surgery to reduce pressure on her abdomen and another time for possible knee surgery.
On her third trip she says she would like travel outside of the hospital a bit and see Thailand, maybe even buy a holiday home here.
Read more Bangkok Post articles on medical tourism from the archives.
(Source: Bangkok Post, Realtime, page R6, Elizabeth Gibson, AFP, 27-06-08, non-bkkpost-temp-link)
Vocabulary:
capture a market
- sell most of the goods and services in a market ครองตลาด
(ขายสินค้าได้มากที่สุด)
premier - high quality for a high price
ที่สำคัญที่สุด
medical tourism - the rapidly-growing practice of
traveling across international borders to obtain health care (See Wikipedia)
การเดินทางไปรักษาตัวที่ประเทศต่างๆ
market segment - a small market within a larger
market, a group of customers who all share special needs (See glossary)
กลุ่มตลาดย่อย
a turning point
- a time when an important event takes place, that affects the future
course of events จุดเปลี่ยน
significant turning point - an important turning
point จุดเปลี่ยนที่สำคัญ
insurance
- pay small regular amount of money to a company to protect you against
a risk of a bad event happening, if the bad event happens, then the
company pays money (See Wikipedia)
การประกันภัย ประกันชีวิต
health insurance - insurance to pay for medical
treatment if a medical problem happens to someone (See Wikipedia)
การประกันสุขภาพ
health insurance policies - the contract for health
insurance between the health insurance company and the individual
กรมธรรม์ประกันสุขภาพ
universal health insurance - health insurance that
provides health to everyone living in a country
แผนประกันสุขภาพสำหรับคนในประเทศ
special
requirements of - the special needs of (the customer)
ความต้องการพิเศษ เฉพาะกลุ่ม
providing personalised service - giving service that
meets the individual needs of the customer ให้การบริการส่วนบุคคล
นั่นหมายถึงการให้บริการที่สนองความต้องการที่ต่างไปของลูกค้าแต่ละคน
oversees - manages, checks work to see if it is
well-done ตรวจตรา ตรวจสอบ
Imam the title of a prayer leader in Islam (See Wikipedia)
อิหม่าม ตำแหน่งผู้นำทางศาสนาของมุสลิม
halal meals - food that Islamic law permits to be
eaten (See Wikipedia)
อาหารที่ได้รับการอนุญาตให้ชาวมุสลิมกินได้
Dismissed as Y - people do not take it seriously for
reason Y ไม่ได้รับการสนใจ
as a last resort - as the last solution to the
problem to try, after everything else fails ที่พึ่งสุดท้าย ทางออกสุดท้าย
endure
- continue with a difficult situation, not giving up อดทน
had trouble enduring - was difficult to endure
(because it was so painful) ยากที่จะทนไหว
initial operation - the first surgery she had
การผ่าตัดเบื้องต้น
reduce pressure on her
abdomen -
stop something pressing her stomach ลดอาการปวดกด ในช่องท้อง