Health Tourism

Health Tourism, apart from being made in order to treat the type of tourism that travels is an important priority in the growth of health institutions in Turkey…

Health Tourism is going from one country to another country for any reason (the length of the waiting period, the affordability of the treatment or better quality health care, etc.). It should not be considered as a type of tourism that is only visited for treatment in hospitals. It is tourism created by people who travel to other places for health purposes from where they live.

Health tourism is in short, the travels for the purpose of treatment. In other words; It is a type of tourism that enables the growth of health institutions by using the international patient potential in order to improve the physical well-being of the traveler or with those who need aesthetic surgery operations, organ transplantation, dental treatment, physical therapy, rehabilitation.

WHY HEALTH TOURISM?

Because;

• Tourism with the highest added value,
• Its contribution to the promotion of our country and city will be enormous,
• It will open employment areas in new and various professions,
• Its input to the country’s economy is higher than other types of tourism,
• Health Tourism is a factory without a chimney,
• It will increase the quality of employment,
• There will be an item in closing the current account deficit (1 million health tourists and 20 billion dollars revenue target in 2023),
• Turkey’s medical and thermal sources of investment and Europe, and the world,
• It is an alternative tourism area that will create synergy with winter, nature, belief and cultural tourism types,
• Being a country preferred for health reasons is very important for the international prestige of the country.

WHAT ARE THE FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTH TOURISM?

The factors contributing to the development of health tourism since the day it was born are patient expectations. The factors that provide this development are;

• Getting rid of long patient waiting lists,
• To receive better quality and shorter service,
• Reaching high health technologies,
• To reduce the cost of healthcare services,
• The desire of chronic patients, elderly and disabled people to go to other environments and to be treated,
• The desire of people with drugs and different addictions to be in different or more suitable environments,
• Willingness to travel and cultural visits in addition to being treated,
• It is a person’s desire to hold on to life and to live.

HEALTH TOURISM IN TURKEY

If people’s care for their health increases, healthcare services become competitive and cost differences remain the main factor, the demand for health tourism in our country will increase even faster in the future. And advances in transportation technology have been the starting point of therapeutic travels.

Developments in information technologies and the convenience people experience in accessing all kinds of information have been the driving force of therapeutic travels. Experts predict that especially the demand for plastic surgery will continue to increase, so that there will be a significant demand for overseas services and will be replaced by heart surgeries, which are the basic elements of health tourism.

There are 42 JCI accredited health institutions in our country that are accredited to international standards. Private, public and university hospitals, especially in Istanbul and Ankara, are equipped with the highest technology in the world. oncologic treatment in several hospitals in Turkey, kardiyovos pantry surgery, orthopedics, neurosurgery, pediatric surgery, plastic surgery, eye and teeth are high-tech health care. Cyberknife, robotic surgery, MR, services, bone marrow, organ transplantation can be performed in these hospitals.

Within the scope of the Ministry of Health’s Health Tourism Department, interpreting services are available 24/7 in Arabic, English, German and Russian languages, 112 in case of emergency, 184 in case of complaints and international patients in hospitals. All doctors are obliged to take out occupational obligation insurance and in case of any medical error or malpractice, the patient is immediately compensated by the insurance. All our hospitals serve according to national accreditation criteria and are audited twice a year.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HEALTH TOURISM?

The benefits of health tourism are:

• It removes people’s nervous and physical fatigue.
• It treats various diseases.
• Increases the workforce productivity of employees.
• It provides economic products to natural assets (forest, mountain, healing water, etc.) that do not have economic qualities and are beneficial to health, and provide income to the regions where these assets are located.
• Provides an increase in income in the regions where natural assets beneficial to health are found with the expenditures of tourists.
• It ensures that health tourism can be sustained all year round.