Jamaica ready for health tourism?

[Tuff Gong]

LOl!
Strange juxapositon of the stories...but anyway!


KPH struggles with insects
By Carlalee Gowie
Staff Reporter

Patients at the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) will have to contend with roaches for a while longer, even as the hospital’s administration struggles to keep the population of insects which plague the institution under control.
One patient complained to the Sunday Herald that he was left playing cat and mouse with the insects during his brief stay at the hospital.

<u>FULL STORY:</u>

http://www.sunheraldjamaica.com/coverstory3.htm

Jamaica ready for health tourism
Health tourism is being touted as the sleeping giant, which could propel Jamaica to the top of the ladder of the growing list of international destinations offering medical tourism to patients searching for high-quality, low-cost medical care.

<u>FULL STORY</u>https://<br /> <br /> <a href="http:...story4.htm</a>

[Gen]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

dem is a real set a pappyshow to rhatid [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70456-eyebrows.gif[/img]

bout health tourism

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

Jamaica ready for health tourism
Health tourism is being touted as the sleeping giant, which could propel Jamaica to the top of the ladder of the growing list of international destinations offering medical tourism to patients searching for high-quality, low-cost medical care.

Cuba, Thailand, India, Hungary, Costa Rica, Israel, Turkey, Malaysia and Lithuania are among the countries in this market. Thailand and India are the current market leaders in the global multi billion-dollar health tourism market.

Telemedicine expert, Dr. Winston Davidson, believes Jamaica is well placed to benefit from this lucrative market and local hotels, with little retrofitting, could start the ball rolling.

“If you see a hospital as a hotel for ill patients and a hotel as a hospital for people who are well, you will automatically see the similarities,” Davidson said, adding that people go to both facilities with the expectation that they come out feeling better.

Immediate rewards
Head of Jamaica’s national telemedicine research project, Dr. Davidson divided the health tourism market into three categories — wellness tourism, medical tourism and convalescent health tourism.

He had no doubt that Jamaica, with its international tourism brand, can reap immediate rewards via wellness health tourism, which would transform hotels into facilities not only for rest and relaxation, “but as world-class centres for rejuvenation and promoting healthy lifestyles.”

This combination, argued Dr. Davidson, could see hotels embracing more of and expanding the spa and exercise industries while providing more healthy diets.

“The hotels could sell themselves as vacation venues for healthy lifestyles where guests will feel rejuvenated while on vacation,” Dr. Davidson said.

With available technology, Dr. Davidson reasoned that equipment could be added for guests to get routine health checks, which would serve to detect early warning signals of health disorders, which could either be treated immediately or referred to other health providers for follow-up attention.

He said Jamaica’s record as a high quality destination in the hospitality industry positions the country nicely “to take advantage of this end of the market right now.”

Medical health
Medical health tourism is another area, which “Jamaica is strategically placed to exploit,” said the honorary research fellow.

Global analysis, he explained, indicated that the medical tourism market was comprised of over 19 million trips in 2005, with a total value of US$20 billion. It is predicted that medical tourism will grow to 40 million trips by 2010.

The number of patients at Bumrungrad Hospital in Thailand, a major player in this growing market, leapt from 50,000 in 1996, to 350,000 in 2005.

India’s Apollo Group of Hospitals, which is slated to manage the recently sold Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston, is known for providing world-rated medical procedures. The group attracted 40,000 foreign patients in 2004.

While the number of medical tourists who visited Cuba in 2000 was tallied at 3,500, the service brought in US$20 million into the local economy.

With Americans and other nationals now flocking facilities in Asia for elective surgeries performed by world-class doctors at Third World prices, Dr. Davidson believes Jamaica could take its slice of the cake without much difficulty.

For the country to do so, it would require upgrading the existing hospitals into “centres of excellence,” he said.

Dr. Davidson said public/private sector co-operation could achieve this objective, as the platform was already in place, citing the country’s health record and money spent on the local health system.

Jamaica currently spends US$149 per capita on healthcare, compared to US$4,187 in the United States. But despite the imbalance, Jamaica’s life expectancy is on par with most first world countries, at 75.2 years for males and 77.4 years for female.

Right climate
Additionally, the national telemedicine project platform is now ready. This covers bundled user-friendly equipment, a universal electronic medical record system buttressed by the latest technology; along with the country’s highly regarded cadre of doctors and nurses.

Recovery/geriatric convalescence health tourism is the third leg from which Jamaica stands to benefit. This involves providing convalescence centres, retirement homes and specialised institutions for the elderly. The latter presents an attractive market.

According to the latest available data, the aging population in the typical OECD country is growing faster than the country’s gross domestic products (GDP). Also international medical tourism seeks to profit from a growing demand for health and wellness services, by offering direct access to high-quality medical procedures at lower costs than those available in the patients’ home countries.

In the US, Canada and the UK, the three primary markets for tourists visiting the English-speaking Caribbean, current healthcare spending is nearly US$2.3 trillion and growing. United States healthcare spending is projected to increase by about 7.2 percent annually, from over US$2 trillion or 16 per cent of GDP in 2005, to reach about US$4 trillion or 20 per cent of US GDP by 2015. This is the magnitude of the market, which Jamaica must seek to capitalise from, Dr Davidson pointed out.

He said Jamaica had the right climate, was English-speaking, would represent less travel time and could provide easy and low-cost access to technology, all at costs, which could be as much as 20 times lower than what are being charged in Asia.

GO BACK

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Geneva</div><div class="ubbcode-body">dem is a real set a pappyshow to rhatid [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70456-eyebrows.gif[/img]

bout health tourism


</div></div>

... and right above it cac roach a dig out peple yeye a KPH?

[Wahalla]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

There was a time I was under the impression that the KPH was a center of excelence in the Western Hemisphere but it could be a false memory....

[Wahalla]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

I see Thialand is a top spot for health tourism... they are the world best at penal reattachment....

[Q3210]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

Your memory is true. Ever since the advent of the 70s, almost everyting dat was good, gone bad.

Health tourism as how me see it is when tourist man dem use a condom and de torist ooman dem demand dat de rentas use fi dem as well.

[Q3210]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I see Thialand is a top spot for health tourism... they are the world best at penal reattachment.... </div></div>

Who then is the best at penal disattachment?

[Wahalla]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Q3210</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I see Thialand is a top spot for health tourism... they are the world best at penal reattachment.... </div></div>

Who then is the best at penal disattachment? </div></div>

apparently it is a common occurance in Thialand, when a woman catches a husband being unfaithful.... but htye got so good at reattachment that the women are now using a blender on the detached member....

[Q3210]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

Soon you`ll see on your menu, Penal Puree.

[Wahalla]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Q3210</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Soon you`ll see on your menu, Penal Puree. </div></div>


suh if ah man ate penal pure would he be gay as well as a cannibal ????

[Q3210]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

All I know it would give credence to be homophobic

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">There was a time I was under the impression that the KPH was a center of excelence in the Western Hemisphere but it could be a false memory.... </div></div>

Any positive expectations, real or imagined, that you hold or have held about any institution or State Bureaucracy in Jamaica should revised sharply downwards.

[Yuriatin]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

Wahalla - I think your memory is correct.

At least when my Mother was a nurse there - of course this was donkey years ago - she said you almost eat off the floor.

Now - today something on the floor might jump up & eat YOU! [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70394-bawlout.gif[/img]


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wahalla</div><div class="ubbcode-body">There was a time I was under the impression that the KPH was a center of excelence in the Western Hemisphere but it could be a false memory.... </div></div>

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica ready for health tourism?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Yuriatin</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Wahalla - I think your memory is correct.

At least when my Mother was a nurse there - of course this was donkey years ago - she said you almost eat off the floor.

Now - today something on the floor might jump up & eat YOU! [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/70394-bawlout.gif[/img] </div></div>

LOL!
...an yu gwaan sleep yet dem jus a wheel dung the passage!