HEALTH TOURISM CLEARING HOUSE
We recognise that there will be a wide range of visitors to this site researching health tourism opportunities. Some will be sure about the medical treatment they are looking for. They simply want to identify top quality treatment at a price they can afford: perhaps making necessary treatment a reality, that was not affordable at home, or where waiting lists are unacceptably long. It would be a bonus to have a nice holiday at the same time!
Does this describe you? If yes, we hope you will find on this site the service provider and holiday that you are looking for.
The range of treatment that is on offer in a health tourism context is not significantly less wide than the range of treatments known to mankind! At one end of the spectrum there are potentially life saving or life-prolonging treatments: heart bi-pass surgery is just one such example.
We then have the kind of treatments that could not be classified as life-saving or life prolonging, but which are nevertheless restorative of a previous quality of life. Treatments such as joint replacement surgery and gall bladder surgery come to mind here. Where such is required, and there are no good alternatives, again we would say that if this applies to you, we hope you will find on this site the service provider you require, achieve the return to a quality of life that you so desire, and have the chance to enjoy a holiday environment while recuperating.
Somewhere in the middle of the spectrum we have treatments such as dentistry: encompassing basic dental health (no one would describe seeking treatment for a painful wisdom tooth a frivolity) to dental treatments where vanity comes more to the fore. We then have treatments such as laser eye surgery: rather new and, like any surgical procedure, not entirely without risk. Have we now crossed the threshold in our spectrum where we are talking only about vanity? Many would argue that it is more than vanity to be able to wake up in the morning able to see clearly, to be free of spectacles or the discomfort of contact lenses. We shall not ourselves take sides on this argument other than to highlight that we have moved beyond a point in our spectrum where the issues, as well as the vision, become more blurred!
If we have still maintained your interest in this discussion, you will have correctly anticipated that as we travel towards the opposite end of the spectrum we enter into the likes of fully cosmetic surgery – an area of medicine that becomes much more contentious by most peoples’ standards.
Again, if you have decided this is for you, we hope you will find on our site the service provider you are looking for, in a great environment. But we feel duty bound to step back and ask the questions is this really for you; are there better alternatives to cosmetic surgery? We present some for you to consider elsewhere on this site. If you are prepared to consider them, please click here.
Before concluding this brief discussion of the spectrum of health tourism, we should also highlight some other more varied reasons for seeking treatment abroad. Health checkups and testing for more “personal” conditions, such as HIV, may sometimes more easily or conveniently be achieved abroad. There are also the kinds of health treatment/holidays that carry no risks whatsoever by any reasonable definition: such as relaxation and rejuvenation spas. If these are for you, again we believe you will be able to find what you require on this site.