Medical Tourism is on the horizon

The verdict is still out on medical tourism but the reality of its full presence in Belize is inevitable. Over sixty countries worldwide have already been established as medical tourism destinations and Belize is on the road to becoming one of them. Today at the House of Culture, a workshop was held with both the private and public sectors as well as tourism and health stakeholders to discuss the expectations of international patients, quality and patient safety, as well as developing a common vision on the rules of inclusion for Belize’s Medical Tourism Industry. International Consultant on Medical Tourism, Massimo Manzi, was guest speaker at the workshop. He says the goal is to create a comprehensive set of strategies; implementing a policy that can then be put into legislation. According to Deputy Executive Director of Beltraide, Melanie Gideon, medical tourism has been very fruitful and to acquire just a fraction of the income generated worldwide would be beneficial to Belize. Gideon says the ultimate objective is to have stakeholders know their role in the industry.

Melanie Gideon, Deputy Executive Director, BELTRAIDE

Melanie Gideon

“Like any industry in the country, you need every stakeholder to understand the ultimate objective—thereby knowing their role in the industry. Medical tourism is no different. We have the benefit of developing it from scratch, per say, so all the stakeholders from the local practitioners, to the hoteliers, to the government aspect, the public sector know their role and what they each need to do to help develop this sector. And what is the benefit? Simple economic growth, spreading the wealth, improving Belize’s branding as an economic destination, as another destination for another product and in this case, medical tourism as a product. The benefits will be that our practitioners can really showcase their specialties. And when I say practitioners, I mean from the doctors to the nurses, to the technicians. To make sure that we can continuously take advantage of such a very fruitful, very economically viable industry. So that is what we are hoping to do over the next few months.”

Massimo Manzi

Massimo Manzi, International Consultant on Medical Tourism

“We are in Belize in order to involve a number of stakeholders from the private and public side in order to work together because having medical tourism industry in Belize is not easy—you need excellent hospitals, you need doctors really trained and having certain kind of international experience. Belize has certain competitive advantages obviously and Belize can do it. It can be a very excellent medical tourism destination: the location, the fact that you speak English, you have certain kind of experience including dental tourism, your country wants to be visited by Americans and Canadian—a lot of people that look at Belize like their dream country. So if we are able to add to the existing offer in terms of tourism, sand and beaches, a little bit additional like health and wellness, they will certainly get this sort of opportunity and that’s an opportunity for hospitals, clinics. Not only the healthcare sector but also tour operators, hotels to enter into a different niche which has additional benefits compared to a normal tourist.”

Melanie Gideon

“Currently, Massimo, our technical consultancy, is supposed to have two more months to finish up and his deliverable is a policy document with an action plan and thereafter, it is Beltraide working with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Tourism to enact this through government means to make sure the appropriate legislation goes in, the appropriate regulation goes in, the appropriate support goes into the private sector for development. I think Massimo had mentioned about financing. If we are sure that we want to do this, it is the government’s role to assist the private sector to access financing. If it is technical assistance to approve their capacity building. So all of that goes. That is the future; that is the way forward of what we are going to do for the industry.”

Medical Tourism is not new to Belize. Private hospitals have arrangements with cruise ships to attend to passengers that get injured while in the country. The role of Belize’s private health care providers in the new regime has not been established.