Challenges and Suggestions for the Development of Medical Tourism China

The improvement of the visa system

The Medical Tourism market in Southeast Asia and South Korea is mainly dominated by "light medical care", such as lifestyle medical projects like medical aesthetics, which account for a large proportion. In contrast, China still needs to make efforts to achieve a deep integration of inbound medical care and tourism. She suggested incorporating Medical Tourism into the planning of cross-border service industries, making full use of the continuously improving medical standards in our country, and comprehensively developing the inbound medical industry. By promoting the global flow of patients, the clinical experience and technical capabilities of domestic doctors will be further enhanced. The current lack of cross-border medical visas makes the application process for inbound patients complicated, and special visas need to be established to improve the experience.

The importance of publicity and promotion

Therefore, in order to promote the development of inbound Medical Tourism, relevant supporting or encouraging policies urgently need to be put on the agenda. Among them, the visa issue stands out particularly. At present, China has not established a dedicated cross-border medical visa. Patients from abroad can only apply for short-duration tourist visas. Even the current visa-free transit policy is hard to meet the demand for long-term treatment. For instance, a certain hospital once received a child patient from the Middle East whose treatment period lasted for several months. Every time the visa expired, the hospital had to assist him in applying for an extension. This not only wastes the hospital's time and energy, but also affects the treatment experience of patients. It is difficult for hospitals to increase their international exposure, and they are restricted by their promotion through overseas channels.

National-level planning and management

Pan Zhongying also pointed out that the development of inbound Medical Tourism in our country requires top-level design and planning at the national level. In terms of the allocation of medical resources, the scale of public hospitals' opening to the public should be clearly defined to avoid conflicts with the medical needs of local residents. At the same time, a scientific assessment system should be established to clearly define the boundaries between international medical care and special medical care. The entry of Medical Tourism requires a clear top-level design, clearly defining the boundaries between the opening of medical resources and international medical care. She suggested incorporating Medical Tourism into the overall planning of cross-border service industries and formulating corresponding supportive policies.