A Neglected Dimension of Medical Tourism Destination Impacts: A Synthesis of Observations and Convictions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12727/ajts.20.2Keywords:
medical torusim, medical tourists, medical tourism facilitators, brian drain, public healthcareAbstract
Medical tourism based on transnational journeys for health care, cure, and well-being is being widely discussed in the literature. As a fast-developing phenomenon, there are different views and perspectives on the concerns of medical tourists and various impacts created in destination areas. This paper critically observes the exertions of medical tourism on destination areas in the light of economic and socio-cultural influences. This paper tries to bring out the muddles of the phenomenon based on empirical research. The paper suggests that the socio-cultural impact of medical tourism on the health care of the poor local people must be viewed seriously and calls for rigid and efficient legislation from the authorities to enable and strengthen the public healthcare system.
References
Bennett, T. (2009). Perspectives. Medical Travel Today, 3(16). Retrieved from http://www.medicaltraveltoday.com/ MTTE08/MTTEv3-16.html
Bookman, M. Z., & Bookman, K. R. (2007). Medical tourism in developing countries. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chanda, R. (2002). Trade in health services. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 80(2), 158 - 63.
Chinai, R., & Goswami, R. (2007). Medical visas mark growth of Indian medical tourism. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 85(3), 164-165.
Cohen, E. C. E. (2008). Medical tourism in Thailand. AU-GSB e-journal, 1 (1), 24-37.
Cohen, I. G. (2011). Medical tourism, access to health care, and global justice. Virginia Journal of International Law, 52, 1.
Connell, J. (2011). A new inequality? Privatization, urban bias, migration and medical tourism, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 3, 260–271.
Connell, J. (2011). Medical tourism. CABI: Wallingford, UK
Connell, J. (2013). Contemporary medical tourism: conceptualization, culture and commoditization. Tourism Management, 34, 1-13.
Cortez, N. (2008). Patient without borders: the emerging global market for patients and the evolution of modern health care. Indiana Law Journal, 83, 71-131.
Even, D., & Zinshtein, M. (2010). Haaretz probe: Israel gives medical tourists perks denied to citizens. Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/3auupjc
Hill, C. E., Knox, S., Thompson, B. J., Williams, E. N., Hess, S. A., & Ladany, N.(2005). Consensual qualitative research: An update. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52(2), 196.
Horowitz, M. D., & Rosensweig, J. A. (2007). Medical tourism-health care in the global economy. Physician Executive, 33(6), 28-30.
Hurwitz, B., & Sheikh. A. (2009). Health care errors and patient safety. Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
James, P. T. (2012). The impact of medical tourism on Thai private hospital management: informing hospital policy. Global journal of health science, 4 (1), 127-139.
Jan Swasthya Abhiyan. (2006). Health system in India: crisis and alternatives [Booklet]. National Coordination Committee: Delhi
Joseph, S. (2016). Development of sustainable indicators for medical tourism development in Kerala with reference to modern medicine. Unpublished Doctoral Thesis. Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala.
Kristen & Smith. (2008). Medical Tourism: for richer or poorer, paper presented at ownership & appropriation, a joint conference of The ASA, The ASAANZ and the AAS, 8th - 12th December 2008, and University of Auckland, New Zealand.
MacReady, N. (2007). Developing countries court medical tourists. The Lancet, 369 (9576), 1849-1850.
Medical Tourism Association. (2013). MTA Medical Tourism (Survey Report). Retrieved from http://www medicaltourismassociation.com/en/2013-mta-survey report.html
Mudur, G. (2004). Hospitals in India woo foreign patients. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 328(7452), 1338. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC420282/
Ormond, M. (2011). Shifting subjects of health-care: placing ‗medical tourism‘ in the context of Malaysian domestic health-care reform. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 52 (3), 247-259.
Pellegrino, E. D. (1999). The commodification of medical and health care: the moral consequences of a paradigm shift from a professional to a market ethic. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, 24(3), 243-266.
Pocock, N. S., & Phua, K. H. (2011). Medical tourism and policy implications for health systems: a conceptual framework from a comparative study of Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. Global Health, 7(1). Retrieved from https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1744-8603-7-12.
Prathap, S. (2014). New tourism ventures. Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd: New Delhi.
Rad, N. F., Puad, A., Som, M., Zainuddin, Y. (2010). Service Quality and Patients‘ Satisfaction in Medical Tourism. World Applied Sciences Journal (Special Issue of Tourism & Hospitality) 10, 24–30.
Ramesh, M., & Wu, X. (2008). Realigning public and private health care in Southeast Asia. The Pacific Review, 21(2), 171-187.
Reisman, D. A. (2010). Health tourism: social welfare through international trade. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham.
Sengupta, A. (2011). Medical tourism: Reverse subsidy for the elite. Signs, 36 (2), 312-319. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/ 655910.
Sengupta, A., & Nundy, S. (2005). The private health sector in India. British Medical Journal, 331(7526), 1157-1158.
Sharma, A. (2013). Medical tourism: emerging challenges and future prospects. International Journal of Business and Management Invention, 2(1), 21-29.
Smith, K. (2012). The problematization of medical tourism: a critique of neoliberalism. Developing world bioethics, 12(1), 1-8.
Solomon, H. (2011). Affective journeys: the emotional structuring of medical tourism in India. Anthropology and Medicine, 18(1), 105-118.
Steven, L. M. (2010 October 6). Ethical issues threaten the future of the medical tourism Sector? Medical Tourism Magazine.
Tattara, Giuseppe. (2010) Medical tourism and domestic population health (January 29, 2010). University Ca' Foscari of Venice, Dept. of Economics Research Paper Series No. 02_10. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1544224 or http://dx.doi.org/ 10.2139/ ssrn.1544224.
Turner, L. (2007). First world health care at third world prices: globalization, bioethics and medical tourism. Bio Societies, 2(3), 303-325.
Whittaker, A. (2008). Pleasure and pain: medical travel in Asia. Global Public Health, 3(3), 271-290.
WHO. (2013, October). Medical tourism, patient safety. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 85, 161-244.
WTTC. (2011). Business travel: A catalyst for economic performance (Report). Oxford: World Travel and Tourism Environment Research Center.