Medical tourism, which refers to the growing practice of travelling across international borders in order to get health care or medical attention, is continuously growing and currently several countries are significantly benefiting from it.

It is also called medical travel or health tourism. The most common medical treatment or procedures involved are elective procedures and complicated specialised surgeries such as joint replacement; heart surgery; dental surgery; bariatric surgery or weight-reduction surgery and cosmetic surgeries.
A specialised set of medical tourism is the reproductive tourism which refers to the practice of travelling abroad to undergo in-vitro fertilization, surrogate pregnancy as well as other assisted reproductive technology treatments.
More and more countries are becoming medical tourism destinations. Medical tourism statistics reveal an anticipated growth of the industry from about $40 billion in 2004 to $100 billion by the year 2012. The estimate was made by the Confederation of India and the McKinsey Company.
Another report disclosed that an estimated 750,000 Americans sought treatment abroad in 2007. It was also estimated that a million and a half Americans sought advantages and benefits. Believe it or not, one of the major benefits of medical tourism is its affordable cost. There are many procedures that when done in one’s own country can cost higher than in other countries.
For example, a coronary bypass may cost almost $80,000 in the United States but only over $10,000 in India. Most of the times, the cost of the procedure alone in a local hospital is more expensive than the plane ticket, hotel accommodation, vacation package, and the entire medical expenses in a foreign country.

There’s no turning back for the medical tourism industry. The fact is more and more countries around the world are emerging into medical tourism destinations from Asian countries such as India and Thailand, North America’s Cuba, to South Africa and even some European countries such as Hungary. The industry is anticipating a significant growth reaching around $100 billion in revenues by the year 2012.

MOST UNFORTUNATE
Against this backdrop it is most unfortunate and shocking that the parliamentary Opposition in Guyana would vote to cut allocations in the national budget for the construction of a Specialty Hospital, which is being mainly funded through a soft loan from India.

The big question therefore is why would Guyana’s parliamentary Opposition  cut funding for such a progressive project? It boggles the mind and defeats any sense of logic. It is a totally untenable position.
Guyanese have been forced to seek specialist medical treatment abroad at  tremendous cost and great inconvenience. In many instances many families, despite support from government, find it impracticable to raise the huge sums of money needed to access medical treatment abroad.
Having a Specialty Hospital will greatly reduce the cost and inconvenience if we have a facility locally to carry out specialised medical treatment and surgery. It is unfathomable how anyone could be opposed to the establishment of such a facility which will benefit the entire country, and more particularly, the poorer people.
And very importantly, the realisation of a Specialty Hospital would help us to join other nations which have developed a medical tourism sector and this of course would bring great benefit to our national economy.
So the Opposition’s motive for  holding back the construction of the Specialty Hospital in Guyana is puzzling, but may be explained as an act of vindictiveness in an effort to stall progress because a client of the Leader of one of the two Opposition parties did not get the contract to construct the hospital and is calling for a re-tendering of the bids.
This shows clearly that the Opposition is putting its political interest in front of the national interest.
Guyanese from all walks of life, be it supporters of the Opposition or of the government, should take stock of this anti-national interest and unpatriotic stance of the political Opposition.
Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Anil Nandlall sums it up well when he said that the PPP/C administration finds the cut to this facility “undecipherable on the ground of logic, commonsense, and even politics”.
At the end of the day, this facility is not intended to benefit supporters of the government or the ruling party. Certainly, it will benefit every single Guyanese who, at some point in time, would require the type of medical procedure and attention that this hospital is intended to dispense.

HOPE FOR HOSPITAL
It should be noted that the Government is still clinging to the hope that the combined Opposition will realise its folly and reverse its decision to cut funding for the Specialty Hospital.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon is on record as saying that, given the circumstances, he does not believe enough effort has been spent advising the Opposition on how incomprehensible is their act of slashing $1.2 billion allocated for the Specialty Hospital.
Speaking at his usual post-Cabinet media briefing, last Friday, Dr Luncheon recalled that, in 2012, the Opposition had unanimously agreed to the construction of the hospital at Liliendaal,Greater Georgetown, subsequent to which the Guyana Government entered into contractual obligations, spending approximately $798M on preparatory works.
The HPS said Government is hoping that commonsense would prevail and the decision to cut the provision would be reversed.
“We have some time for commonsense to prevail, for contract law to be given effect and our anticipation is[that] sober thinking would descend on those who were responsible for this incomprehensible decision and that it, indeed, would be corrected in due time,” Luncheon said.
He added: “So, for us, this is merely an opportunity for the act to be reviewed and to be revised before we come to the Appropriation Bill when this matter is deliberated on finally.”
Despite offering a plethora of answers to questions posed, explanations offered and pleadings on the part of Government ministers, the combined Opposition (A Partnership for National Unity and the Alliance For Change) used its one-seat majority in the National Assembly to effect the first budget cut of 2013, to slash every dollar allocated for the construction of the hospital.
Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsaran provided explanations in relation to the works completed, thus far, indicating that the contractor hired for the site preparation, G. Bovell and Sons had, to date, been paid some $52.3M for works undertaken, while the contractor for the construction of the hospital, Surendra Engineering of India, had already been paid $746M for its design and survey works undertaken.
Dr Ramsaran had indicated that included in what was done, thus far, are the geotechnical surveys and preliminary site preparation.
He informed that there was some issue with a lack of capacity on the part of the local contractor to undertake the preparation of the site, but this did not hinder the works of the overseas-based company.
Ramsaran said the foreign company has completed its initial phase of works for which it has already been paid and, further, is ready to proceed with the project and begin ordering piles and steel structures.
Meanwhile, the new hospital is intended to allow Guyanese access to quality tertiary health care at an affordable cost. The availability of the hospital could reduce the number of people who travel overseas to receive medical attention, which is often expensive, the Health Minister said.