BUSINESS; Pg. 1

By Julia Fields

IN Sholto Ramsay's world, healthcare is one seamless global machine. Patients, regardless of origin, have the option of having their dental implants in Edinburgh, their boobs done in India, and their hips replaced in France.

The latest cancer treatment is available in days rather than months; and employers are willing to pay to fly their staff to the ends of the earth to receive it.

Medical travellers have a designated queue at airport passport control and hotels have special beds that roll out to the balcony for convalescing in the sun.

Governments have national medical tourism strategies and private hospitals are the growth engine of economies.

It is a vision likely to horrify public healthcare advocates, but some of these things are already a reality. And Scottish entrepreneurs, including Ramsay, aim to be at the heart of the revolution.

Ramsay opened Globe Health Tours in Edinburgh last year, and is quickly expanding into Asia, Africa and the US.

Barrhead Travel, one of Scotland's largest independent travel firms, will launch its medical tourism business later this month to take patients to nine countries, including France, Spain, Norway and India, for cosmetic and orthopaedic surgery. It follows Dubai Surgery in Aberdeen, which offers "medical holidays" in the United Arab Emirates.

These types of businesses are hoping to improve the experiences of the more than 50,000 Britons that travel overseas for treatment. Bill Munro, founder of Barrhead, says one of the key drivers for many customers is price; procedures in Norway are still 30-per cent cheaper than those paid privately for in the UK. But he adds that many people were opting for overseas care for other reasons. "As we keep reading in the press, MRSA is all over the place. People are frightened to get care in the UK now. People are also willing to pay to jump the queue." Brits, however, are only a fraction of the potential market. The real money-making opportunities, for the time being, are happening elsewhere, as Eastern Europeans, Russians, Africans and Asians search for life-changing surgeries or procedures not available in their countries.

The migration of patients is already becoming big business in places like India. A CII-McKinsey report recently predicted that medical tourism there could attract over dollars-2 billion in revenues by 2012. Ramsay's company is also advising the Mexico government on how to develop a national medical tourism strategy with the aim of benefitting from the millions of Americans trying to avoid bankruptcy from their medical bills.

The US-based HR Magazine recently predicted "medical tourism" would be one of the benefits corporations will be offering soon. Ramsay is already witnessing the change.

Globe Health Tours is advising three American small businesses on overseas healthcare for staff and is about to open an office in Dallas to tap into this emerging revenue stream.

The industry is also becoming more sophisticated. Globe Health Tours is now trying to work out the proper procedures and protocols for longer-term care for conditions like cancer and assessing the ethical considerations of organ transplants. Price structures are also changing.

Most travel companies make their money on commission fees from hospitals. But if employers become involved, he says, a percentage of the amount of money they save might be the way forward.

While the industry is very much in its infancy, Ramsay insists revenues are now on a steep growth curve. Some argue growth will be held back by the question of whether the quality of care is equal to what could be received at home but Ramsay argues reputation is everything and that it is in the hospitals' best interests to be totally professional.

"The reason global medical care works is because medicine is already a global business, " he says. "Surgeons from all over work in the UK, the US and elsewhere. We can tell you more about your surgeon than you will ever know about your NHS trust."

April 4, 2007