Cruising around the internet for the latest news on medical tourism (or medicare as it is sometimes being called now) is illuminating as, almost daily, more destinations clamber on board the gravy train.

A speaker at the first “Wellness Tourism Seminar Workshop” in the Philippines was reported as saying that,” The Philippines was not only lacking in facilities, the industry itself is not organised.” And then we get the opposite from the Department of Tourism and the Spa Association saying they have ‘unique’,'the best’ ‘to entice foreign vsitors’.

Of course the competitive costs are mentioned along with Filiino hospitality. Enter Malaysia who is gearing up to become a medical tourism hub. At least they acknowledge they have a long way to go to catch up to Singapore and Thailand who have gained a strong reputation as good service providers at a reasonable price. Then the race gets a little dirty as a Managing Director was quoted as saying, “We need to be much more aggressive with marketing and promotional activities”.

 I take issue with the use of the word “aggressive”. People looking to save money on dental, cosmetic or surgical work do not need to become victims of aggressive marketing. Of course they are the consumers of a product but hopsitals that launch sales and marketing arms alarm me because of the language they use.I say ‘Let the consumer speak’. I don’t need or want high pressure sales pitches. I note that in India, which excels in saturation internet marketing hype has seen a decrease in patients from America and the U.K. in the last year. Maybe this is partly because people are not stupid and aggressive marketing forgets to take into account consumer’s perceptions about a country. If you can’t live up to the hype then you will pay for it. That’s good, because it is known from the Institute of Medicine data that over 100,000 accidental deaths occur every year in hospitals - and that is in the U.S.!!! People know that hopsitals are dangerous places to be.

For a clean race then we need hospitals that practice high quality medicine and unbeatable service. Selling healthcare is not the same as selling toothpaste. Thank God that Thailand does not need to indulge in aggressive marketing.