At one of Thailand’s premier beach resorts on the tropical island of Phuket, Mancunian Janis Fennel lies beneath the shade of a palm tree, recovering in a hammock. Just ten days ago she lay on an operating table beneath the knife of Dr Kasem, undergoing a six hour breast reduction operation. Now, with the money she saved by flying to Asia for her surgery, she’s treating herself and her family to a little luxury. So in about forty minutes she will be pampered in the on-site Angsana Spa. Then this evening, it’s off for a candlelit dinner of porcini mushroom gnocchi in a light truffle cream sauce – accompanied by a chilled bottle of Les Pierrs Blanches Sancerre – served on the private dining boat that cruises the hotel lagoon. “I can’t think of any finer way to recover,” she says.
As NHS waiting lists increase and UK private hospitals begin to look overpriced on the global marketplace, a growing number of patients are discovering the cheap, world class healthcare available in Thailand.
Partly thanks to the devaluation of the Thai baht during the Asian financial crisis, and partly due to an overcapacity in Thailand’s private hospitals, face lifts, liposuction, breast augmentation, hip replacements and even sex change operations now cost western patients between half and a third of what they would pay at home.
It’s this combination of low prices, quality treatment and idyllic tropical getaways that sees Thailand set to challenge South Africa for medical tourism’s top spot.
Medical tourism in Thailand