Academic literature on the topic 'Medical tourism – Singapore'

This chapter assesses the status of medical tourism in two of the most developed countries in Asia; Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore was an early participant: in 1986, private medical services were added to the government's inventory of facilities, with the objective of making the island into an international medical hub. In 1986 this was not labelled medical tourism as the connection had not been identified. Following the identification of medical tourism as a growth sector by the Malaysian government later in 1998, that country too saw significant public and private sector investment in the development of the industry. Malaysia now compares favorably to India, Thailand, and Singapore in terms of its medical facilities, skills and costs. Both destinations can add excellent medical services at a reasonable cost to the mix of easy access, reasonably-priced hotel rooms, excellent public transport systems, and good visa regulations for visitors. All of these factors help to make the choice of destination for medical treatment an easy decision for the potential patient.

“Medical Tourism” is a growing industry, attracting more and more attention. Taiwan's government, hopeful that this new industry could generate considerable revenue, has declared its ambition to become the premier choice for cross-country medical care for international visitors. The policy network approach emphasizes the interaction between policy actors. This chapter examines Taiwan's medical tourism development from the model of public policy implementation. We present findings from twelve semi-structured interviews with stakeholders across medical service providers, as well as government officers, and civil society sectors. We found that medical tourism in Taiwan is a growing service, with both public and private sector involvement. However, it is still lagging behind regional competitors such as Singapore, Thailand, and India. Thus, active efforts should be made to encourage the coordination between the medical care sector, tourism industry, and relevant authorities.