Tender Loving Care

Abby Tan investigates the new wave of medical tourism photos by Danny Tan

As slogans go, “Paradise Philippines – a haven for caring people” might seem a mouthful to digest, but there is no doubt that the appetite for medical tourism and wellness in the Philippines is growing by the day

The skeptics may tut, for as usual the country has been slow off the mark: Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and India have been marketing their medical services with great success for nearly 10 years now. The question is: how can the Philippines compete? Taking lessons from these countries, Philippine tourism’s health and spa industries are putting their thinking caps on, getting their heads together and asking why shouldn’t they get a piece of the action? There’s a big market out there and they are well positioned to offer medical tourists a service that matches – if not surpasses – what’s currently available elsewhere.

A UNIQUE TOUCH
There are, however, some major issues to address. Local hospitals are poorly equipped; many doctors, nurses and technicians have moved abroad to work; there are not enough hotel rooms; and tourist facilities, such as ports and airports, are inadequate. But government agencies hope that incentives like tax perks will help polish medical facilities and improve infrastructure, thus attracting new investment. The joint government-private sector markets are eagerly sending out the message: come to the Philippines for healthy holidays.

“We don’t want to compete,” Cynthia Carrion, the Assistant Secretary for Sports and Wellness Tourism in the Department of Tourism says outright.

“We feel we have a niche market,” she explains. “What we offer is different from other countries. We are not only just offering successful medical operations, but the whole country as a one-stop shop for complete, holistic, wellness holidays.”

The thinking is that once medical tourists have had their operations or check-ups, they will complete their rejuvenation with further detoxing and recuperation at top-class spas. And one must-do is to sample the unique Filipino healing massage, the hilot.

The selling point in this competitive world is to market the warm touch of the Filipino: the tender loving care (TLC) that many think the country has a monopoly on. Okay, Singapore has state-of-the-art efficiency but little TLC. In Thailand there is the language barrier to contend with, while India has cheap medicines but the style of service is less comfort-led.

“Filipinos are a caring people,” Carrion says. “Patients feel that the care given is sincere. That is something inborn.” The Philippine medical tourism program is being marketed as a three-prong attack. Under the health and wellness umbrella is a third element – a retirement program to lure foreign retirees from cooler climates to the sunny Philippines.

Special villages equipped with wellness centers and hospitals are being built to enable this plan to become a reality. Grand ambitions for sure, but not many hospitals in the Philippines reach the necessary international standards to qualify as medical tourist destinations. St Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City is one exception, but many of the other 26 government, private hospitals and specialty clinics so far identified for future accreditation require many more years of hard work.

MAKING THE GRADE

A treatment room
at St Luke’s Medical CenterSt Luke’s has been accredited with the Joint Commission International (JCI) since 2002. The JCI is made up of a number of health care organizations in the United States that set stringent criteria. Getting JCI accreditation means getting the seal of quality in health care. St Luke’s can boast the most modern equipment and can handle a vast array of surgeries and tests. In fact, it started marketing to medical tourists 10 years ago.

It hopes to increase its international patients from three to 10 per cent once a new US$200m (PHP9.5bn) hospital in Fort Bonifacio Global City is completed in 2010. Their International Customer Service Unit opened last year and resembles an airport lounge where guests are checked in and out and can help themselves to coffee and sandwiches throughout their stay. Patients are even collected from the airport – a personal touch that, it is hoped, will give the hospital a competitive edge.

“Our dream is to achieve the very best health care and customer program in the world,” declares St Luke’s president and chief operating officer José Ledesma. “I know it’s a huge dream,” he says.

To achieve this, the hospital is adding 40 more customer service staff to handle both local and foreign patients, including a Korean to handle patients from Seoul. They will supplement the existing Japanese staff.

Over the next three years, the entire staff will undergo an extensive customer service program. “It is very exciting for us,” enthuses Ledesma, “we want to make sure they have it in their hearts.”

Filipinos have to place a value on the services they offer as they are not always competitive on cost. Joel Beltran, director for business development at the newer Asian Hospital and Medical Center, points out: “Singapore’s [services] are half of US prices, so are expensive. Thailand is one-fifth or one-sixth of US prices.

“India is cheaper because they make their own medicines. Manila is sometimes more expensive than Thailand.”

Asian Hospital itself, located in Alabang, is just starting out in competing for medical tourists. But since Bumrungrad International, a Bangkok-based hospital group specializing in medical tourism, bought 40 per cent of Asian Hospital in 2005, Beltran feels it will benefit from its Thai parent’s experience in operating medical tourism facilities. It is also exploring the Australian market.

Medical tourist Deborah KramerFOREIGN PROJECTIONS
The Department of Health (DOH) is eyeing a ready market among the eight million overseas Filipinos, spread across 150 countries, as potential international medical tourists. “We expect 125,000 foreign patients this year, based on the total bed capacity of participating hospitals.

“Imagine if each spends US$1,000 (PHP48,000) – that’s a lot for starters,” explains Dr Paul Reganit, medical tourism program manager at the DOH.

The department has identified 22 privately-owned hospitals and five government hospitals and clinics as candidates for accreditation (and tax breaks) as medical tourism destinations.

The five government centers grouped under the Philippine Centers for Specialized Health Care are the Philippine Heart Center, the Lung Institute, the National Kidney Institute, Children’s Medical Center and East Avenue Medical Center. The approach, says Dr Reganit, is to concentrate on upgrading the existing hospital facilities in the Manila region; after which focus will move to clinics in Metro Cebu and Metro Davao before moving on to the tourists hotspots of Boracay in Central Philippines and Pagudpud in north Luzon. All accredited hospitals are to be upgraded to provide services for many medical treatments – except heart and kidney transplants. Heart transplants are not considered viable as Philippine doctors need to do 20 operations a year to be proficient, says Ledesma, and the numbers simply aren’t there. Kidney transplants also face ethical and moral problems.

“We don’t want a situation where a rich Korean comes here to buy a kidney from a poor Filipino,” says Dr Reganit.

St Luke’s opens its liver transplant unit this year to become the only hospital in the Philippines to have a liver center. And plastic surgery is set to boom. Both St Luke’s and Asian Hospital started advertising their services heavily after the well-known US company The Beverly Hills Surgery opened shop in Makati late last year.

This was viewed as a portent of things to come. Already, Korean and Japanese tourists have been visiting Manila asking plastic surgeons to make their eyelids rounder and more Caucasian-looking.

STARTING FROM SPAS
The TLC crossover means the line between spas providing therapeutic treatments and hospitals specializing in medical tourism is increasingly fine. The spa side is already successful, with places like The Farm in Batangas, Mandala Spa in Boracay, Chi and Badjian Island Spa, both in Cebu, already winning international awards. Beauty centres such as Pretty Looks in Pasig City and Davao, sell ‘“cosmetic surgery” – treatments such as non-surgical noselifts, lipodissolve (liposuction by injection) and mesotherapy (anti-ageing formulas administered to the face and body). The Shangri-la hotel group has just set up its Spa Academy to train the chain’s therapists worldwide, at Edsa Plaza Hotel in Ortigas. Yet even with the private sector enthusiastic and government support in place, it will still take the Philippines many years to reach a competitive level. “There is no silver bullet, we have to do it slowly,” Dr Reganit concludes. “In five years, realistically, we should be on track.”

Exec Checks
Deborah Kramer, 33, is the kind of medical tourist the Philippines wants to capture. She is from the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. Since sailing through the doors of St Luke’s Medical Center and finishing all her executive check-ups in one-anda-a- half days, she hasn’t stopped gurgling with delight and excitement about what she’s sampled and everything the Philippines has to offer.

“Everybody’s been so professional,” she says. “The staff have been excellent; the hospital’s customer service wonderful. They are absolutely caring people who go the extra mile to make you feel at home.”

Deborah came to Manila with her 26-year-old sister Melissa at the suggestion of their parents, who have been visting the Philippines for medical treatment for the the last three years.

The family used to go to Hawaii for their medical treatment. “Nah,” she says, giving the thumbs down.

“Hawaii has a different system. You need three months to get an appointment in a hospital, and a few weeks to get the tests results.”

But in Manila she managed to get the results in one to two days.

Paradise Found
Here, in the peace and quiet of Tagaytay, one hour’s drive from Manila, Canadian Michael McDermott has found his own little paradise. “I am 62 and passed my use-by date,” laughs the building contractor. “But it is only now that I’m beginning to do things that I have neglected [in the past].” Such as checking himself and his wife into Le Petite Paradis, Tagaytay’s first accredited medical spa. Five months ago, he and his Filipina wife Jeannie both got teeth implants – and since then, their two sons and daughter have had braces. Jeannie was bitten by the bug and got a nose job and treatment to soften her skin.

The McDermotts have become Le Petite Paradis’ best endorser. “The best referral is someone who’s happy with it,” Mr McDermott explains. Their Canadian lawyer and his wife soon came too, her for a neck resculpture and both of them for new teeth. Next, Mr McDermott has lined up liposuction.