When it comes to medical travel, Singapore presents a classic case of supply and demand, Dr. Yap said at the World Health Care Congress.
Singapore's tertiary-care hospitals have excess capacity that they're trying to fill. "We have a very small population, and on our own we are not able to maintain the state-of-the-art services. So our approach is to fill the service volume with international patients. That way we can acquire the technology, keep the subspecialists, and provide the highest quality services. We're led by the Ministry of Health in this. It is not just an economic enterprise, it is about providing quality health care for everyone," said Dr. Yap, medical director of the Singapore Tourism Board.
Singapore's hospitals are considered the best in Asia, and the sixth best in the world. "We have one-third of all the JCI accredited facilities, and JCI standards are equivalent or even more stringent than JCAHO's," said Dr. Yap. "We have lower ICU/CCU infection rates than many centers in the U.S. cities. Health care in Singapore is on par with most U.S. hospitals, or better."
Kamaljeet Singh Gill, General Manager of the National Health Care Group, representing several tertiary-care centers in Singapore, explained that his country has a national single-payer health care system, with tiered pricing based on patient need. "If you have money you pay, if you do not have money you don't pay." All hospitals in the country are government owned, and they're equivalent to the Mayo Clinic, "but much less expensive."
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."