South Korea to attract more medical tourists

9-Mar-2007

A new initiate has been launched by the South Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Industry Development Institute to help attract more medical tourists to the nation.

The new organisation, the Council for Korean Medicine Overseas Promotion, will be funded by both the government and private hospitals and each of 30 member hospitals will pay an annual fee to the council to be used for marketing activities, the Korea Times reports.

One of the key promotional activities will be the development of an English language website to cater for patients seeking treatment abroad, as well as the introduction of dedicated packages to combine tourism with medical services at local hospitals.

Ministry official Park Jong-eok told the Korea Times that the number of hospital members would be gradually expanded, with Lasik eye surgery, spinal surgery, infertility treatment and cosmetic surgery to be the main focuses in the initial stages.

Oh Joo-yon, a researcher at the Council for Korean Medicine Overseas Promotion, revealed: "When the level of our medical technology gets better known overseas, we will be able to also attract patients with serious illnesses."