I was watching this Filipino news show with my mom and they were talking about medical tourism, specifically in Thailand. I've known about Filipino's going back to the Philippines to get plastic surgery and what not, but I never imagined American's and Europeans going on a "medical vacation." The news segment also showed what kind of rooms patients stay in after surgery and I've never even stayed at hotels that were this nice! I was also surprised to learn that people don't just travel for plastic surgery, they travel to get other surgeries such as open heart.

The reason I blog about this is because the Philippines is trying to get in on this industry, but they want it to be on a Thailand scale. At first I thought that this would be good for the country. Doctors would be motivated to stay in the Philippines instead of going to the US. (see my blog about this doctor drain) Good for all right? Wrong! Yeah, the doctors will stay and practice in the Philippines, but for TOURISTS. What about all the medically underserved in the rural areas? That's where most care is needed, but if this whole medical tourism thing blows up in the Philippines, every doctor graduating in the country will be pulled towards these hospital/hotels leaving the poor worse off than they were originally.

Hopefully next year I'll get to go on a medical mission to the Philippines in my moms province. I'm really looking forward to it.