LookAtVietnam – When Truong Thi Hang was diagnosed with rectal cancer and told the best course was the surgical removal of her entire anus, the distraught 32-year-old Vietnamese woman flew to Singapore for a final opinion.

In good hands: Visitors and patients always receive a warm welcome from hospital staff.

The young woman is among the increasing numbers of Vietnamese patients choosing to travel abroad for medical treatment.

A global trend has emerged in cross-border healthcare and Viet Nam isn’t immune to it. It is reported that more and more patients are trying to get medical treatment outside their own countries. The most-wanted destinations are countries with well developed healthcare systems like the US, Singapore and the EU.

However, thanks to it proximity, cultural similarity and relatively cheaper services, Singapore, the country whose healthcare system is ranked first in Asia and sixth best in the world by the World Health Organisation, has been always the first choice for Vietnamese travelling patients.

“More than 400,000 international patients go to Singapore each year for medical care, and 10,000 of these are Vietnamese patients. Most hospitals in Singapore serving Vietnamese patients would have Vietnamese-speaking staff to provide translation services and assistance to the patient and family members. This makes it much easier for the patients and they wouldn’t feel ‘lost’,” says Phan Nhung, deputy manager of the Raffles Hospital’s international marketing department.

Last resort?

According to Nguyen Ngoc Anh, chairwoman of VietSing Healthcare – a Singapore-based consultancy group for Vietnamese patients, most of the Vietnamese travelling abroad for treatment are patients suffering from critical illnesses, including cancers, and those needing complicated surgeries to do with the liver, eye or heart.

“Most of them come here when they don’t know where they should turn to for hope at home. Travelling abroad for medical care gives them cutting-edge technology and equipment. In fact, hundreds have returned after successful treatment overseas, which provides overwhelmingly positive feedback,” says Anh.

With modern equipment like the Da Vinci surgical system or Acquilion One CT scanner that only handful of cancer centres worldwide can access, Anh’s remarks aren’t baseless. Obviously, health travellers know that some procedures not available in Viet Nam are available abroad, for instance, corneal or liver transplants.

No day at the beach: Hospital treatments may give patients a unique tourism experience.

“Every health traveller I’ve interviewed experienced “the Big Fear” at one time or another. Healthcare abroad isn’t for everyone, and part of being a smart consumer is evaluating all the impartial data available before making an informed decision,” says Josef Woodman, American author of the guidebook Patients beyond Borders.

“Medical travel isn’t a vacation. You should focus more on your health than on your recreational preferences. Business travellers don’t consider themselves tourists, neither should patients,” he continues.

According to Woodman, it’s vitally important for patients to plan ahead before making their trip. The more carefully and detailed their plan is, the more likely they would get the best doctors, the lowest airfares, the best availability and rates on hotels, especially for those who will be travelling during peak tourist season to Singapore or any other chosen destination.

Moreover, the more a patient knows about the treatment she or he is seeking, the easier her or his search for a doctor will be.

“Do work closely with your local doctor or medical specialists, and make sure you obtain exact information,” advises Dr Tan Kian Hian, director and consultant of the Singapore General Hospital’s Pain Management Center.

The process of travelling abroad for better treatment, particularly in the early planning stages can be daunting, frustrating and even little scary.

However, for treatment of non-life-threatening illnesses, there can be a fun side to this.

Health travel costs depend heavily on the patient’s tastes, length of stay, side-trips, affordability and type of treatment. However, after a long flight to a foreign land, multiple consultations with doctors and staff, as well as a painful medical procedure, doctors strongly recommend that patients shouldn’t jump on the first flight home. Their body needs time to recover and their doctors need to track their recovery progress.

And in a country like Singapore, taking a few days to explore a dynamic country that is rich in contrasts and famous for its harmonious blend of cultures, cuisine, and architecture styles, will help lift up the patients’ spirit.

We’ve all heard that the “the world is shrinking and we’re living in a global village”, but the full meaning of this phrase hits home only after a foray into “medical tourism”.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News