Medical Tourism in Uganda as the ideal today.

Medical Tourism in Uganda and What Uganda can learn from Others

Today Medical tourism is the newest trend in health care. Some countries like Thailand, for instance, has made strides in improving its medical tourism scene hence positioning herself among the top world medical tourism destinations.

Very often, the Health Ministry says some rural health centers fail to attract health workers because they are considered “far to reach” and those areas lack social amenities to entertain the workers.

As a result, patients travel long distances to seek for healthcare leading to congestion in some health facilities.
According to the vice chair of Thailand’s International Health Policy Program Foundation, the government, in 1975 launched a medical welfare scheme for the poor and vulnerable with a welfare medical scheme which was based on putting public interest in healthcare first.

The government also trained health workers specifically for rural areas because the government health workers shunned working there because  of this success, the Thai government launched the civil servant medical benefit scheme in 1980 followed by voluntary health insurance for the private sector.

These health workers formed a Rural Doctors Society after working in a rural district hospital for eight years which discovered a persistent pattern of malnutrition, which had not been taught at school. So they created a non-government organization to fight malnutrition while pushing for more rural doctors. Hence government created a policy which required all doctors to be trained and start their careers by working in rural hospitals before moving to advanced hospitals in the cities.

Thailand today produces 3,000 doctors per annum and boasts of 40 medical education centers and these workers work with provincial hospitals on joint programs. As a result, 80 percent of the doctors now work in rural areas until retirement.

How this can be introduced in Uganda’s plan
Uganda plans to replicate this medical tourism model by starting a system where students who want to study to become nurses and doctors, were recruited as civil servants.

These students were trained as civil servants and government posted them to work in areas where they were needed. The training was conducted in training schools attached to hospitals like Mulago medical school for senior doctors while the nurse’s were trained in schools also attached to hospitals training the lower level workers.

Uganda also on the other hand would be ready for medical tourism with the completion of the refurbished Mulago hospital of which construction work is on going for the installation of the specialized equipment and the laws for organ transplant are will also have to be put in place.
According to the chairman Health Service Commission, training of all health workers is currently being done by the Ministry of Education. As the commission which recruits government health workers and then they make recommendations to the Ministry of Public Service which supervises the government workers

A large pool of skilled health workers of both high and low end plus complementary medicine facilities such as health spa have eventually birthed the concept of medical hubs.
The chief of the Thai Medical Hub Policy says that the explosion of private and public health facilities dealing both in mainstream human medicine and supportive treatment such as the Spa and Massage business, forced the Thai government in 2013, to create the Medical Hubs strategy which identifies the booming healthcare business and wellness as a potential economic growth engine.

The Spa Enterprise Act to promote health tourism was created four hubs namely the Medical Service Hub, Wellness Hub, Product Hub and the Academic hub.

A medical hub is a specialized advanced facility for medication and treatment of complex ailments. In Thailand’s case, these are multi-storey single buildings which accommodate the general hospital facilities but in addition, they have private hotel facilities where discharged patients under doctor review, can check-in.

The Medical hubs
According to history the medical hubs concept was first adopted from the United States of America and later spread to Asia and with 64 accredited hospitals, Thailand is currently among the top 10 medical tourism destinations in the world because they can treat complex ailments at a cheaper cost.

The Patient on tour

A tour patient can be accompanied by caretakers and while the hospital attends to the patients, the caretakers are booked into a hotel that also offers sightseeing services for them among others which can also be extended to the patients