MEDICAL TOURISM
The rapidly-growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care
Singapore's Statistics
1) 646,000 visitors came to Singapore for medical treatment or related reasons in 2008.
2) From this number, about 230,000 were family members accompanying without actually receiving treatment themselves.
3) The actual number of sole medical tourists receiving treatment was therefore 370,000.
4) The combined revenue accounts to $1.5 billion.
Accreditations
1) Thirteen hospitals and medical centres in Singapore have obtained Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation
2) In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked Singapore's healthcare system as the best in Asia and sixth best in the world in its World Health Report 2000 - Health Systems.
3) In 2006, Reader's Digest in a 25,000 reader survey found that their readers ranked Singapore only after USA as most favoured healthcare destination, even ahead of Europe.
Why Singapore?
The Environment
1) Not just treatment - but recovery as well. Most Europeans choose Singapore for its clean cosmopolitan atmosphere.
2) Ranked second in the world for the lowest estimated child mortality rate; Infant mortality rate: 3 per thousand (WHO 2010)
Technologically Sound
1) A*STAR developed a bed that can measure respiratory and pulse rates, monitor sleep patterns and sleep disorders, detect pressure points on limbs, and even indicate if a patient has fallen out of bed. (2010)
Analysis
Effect on Unemployment
THE BEVERIDGE CURVE:
The Beveridge curve is a co-relation between job vacancy rate and the unemployment rate of an economy. The 45 degree line represents the stage at which the job vacancy rate is equal to unemployment rate.
At present the Singapore economy is currently at point X where the unemployment is at the rate of 2.20%
