Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 May 6:10:29.
doi: 10.1186/1744-8603-10-29.

UK medical tourists in Thailand: they are not who you think they are

Thinakorn Noree, Johanna Hanefeld  1 , Richard Smith
Affiliations

UK medical tourists in Thailand: they are not who you think they are

Thinakorn Noree et al. Global Health. .

Abstract

Background: Travel for medical treatment is an aspect of globalization and health that is comparatively less understood. Little is known about volume, characteristic and motivation of medical tourists, limiting understanding of effects on health systems and patients. Thailand is amongst a handful of countries that have positioned themselves as medical tourism destination. This paper examines in unprecedented detail volume and characteristics of medical tourists who travel from the UK to Thailand for treatment.

Methods: As part of a wider medical tourism study, authors gained access to over 4000 patient records from the five largest private hospitals in Thailand. These included information on country of origin, gender, age, arrival month, hospitalization, diagnosis, procedures, length of stay, medical expenditure and type of payment. Patient records were analysed to understand who travels and findings were triangulated with data from the UK International Passenger Survey (IPS).

Results: 104,830 medical tourists visited these hospitals in Thailand in 2010. While patients originate all over the world, UK medical tourists represent the largest group amongst Europeans. The majority UK medical tourists (60%) have comparatively small, elective procedures, costing less than USD 500. A significant minority of patients travel for more serious orthopedic and cardiothoracic procedures. Data of individual patient records from Thailand shows a higher number of UK patients traveled to Thailand than indicated by the IPS.

Conclusions: Thailand is attracting a large number of medical tourists including larger numbers of UK patients than previously estimated. However, as many patients travel for comparatively minor procedures treatment may not be their primary motivation for travel. The small but significant proportion of older UK residents traveling for complex procedures may point to challenges within the NHS.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Top 10 procedures among UK medical tourists by gender.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Top 10 procedures among male UK medical tourist by age group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top 10 procedures among female UK medical tourist by age group.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Connell J. Contemporary medical tourism: Conceptualisation, culture and commodification. Tour Manage. 2013;34(0):1–13.
    1. Lunt N, Hardey M, Mannion R. Nip, tuck and click: medical tourism and the emergence of web-based health information. Open Med Inform J. 2010;4:1–11. doi: 10.2174/1874431101004010001. PubMed PMID: 20517465. Pubmed Central PMCID: 2874214. Epub 2010/06/03. eng. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. NaRanong A, NaRanong V. The effects of medical tourism: Thailand’s experience. Bull World Health Organ. 2011;89(5):336–344. doi: 10.2471/BLT.09.072249. PubMed PMID: 21556301. English. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hanna SA, Saksena J, Legge S, Ware HE. Sending NHS patients for operations abroad: is the holiday over? Ann R Coll Surg Engl. 2009;91(2):128–130. doi: 10.1308/003588409X359411. PubMed PMID: ISI:000264420700011. English. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Crooks VA, Kingsbury P, Snyder J, Johnston R. What is known about the patient’s experience of medical tourism? A scoping review. BMC Health Serv Res. 2010;10:266. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-10-266. PubMed PMID: 20825667. English. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources