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Healthcare: Over 70,000 patients from abroad, operated, treated in Romania in 2013 – 2014
Over 70,000 patients from abroad were treated in Romania last year and in the first five months of 2014, Prof. Dr. Norina Forna, president of dentistry deans in Romania and president of the International Society of General and Oral-Maxillofacial Rehabilitation Forum Odontologicum in Switzerland, told a Wednesday's press conference.
'In the general medicine, through the bariatric surgery specialties, the anti-aging treatments and through the cosmetic surgery, we have very appreciated specialists who can provide high-quality services to these categories of patients. Dentistry, implantology, is a specialty in demand and in this sense we are making packages of services and programmes. We are conceiving a management guide for these categories of patients. We need to take responsibility also legally, not just medically. The package will contain also the tourism package in addition to the medical one,' Norina Forna told the conference occasioned by the First International Congress 'Medicine Without Borders: Medical and Medical-Dental Tourism.'
According to her, 85% of those who come to Romania for operation and treatment prefer the low tariff charged by Romanian doctors but also the quality of medical services and the experience of practitioners.
'Prices are 50% lower [than abroad]. As Romania is a European country, the treatments they receive here can be reimbursed by their health insurance houses. Prices are much lower than those abroad also in dentistry. Abroad, a dental implant costs 1,500-2,000 euros, whereas in Romania it costs up to 1,000 euros. They come from France, Germany, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia. Some of them are Romanians working or settled there. In one year we had 60 patients from abroad,' said the doctor.
The most sought-after medical procedures are in the following areas: plastic surgery, dentistry, obesity surgery and in-vitro fertilization. Also preferred are spa-physiotherapy and care of elderly people.
The foreigners coming to Romania for medical services want, in an overwhelming proportion, interventions in the field of plastic surgery and dentistry (42% plastic surgery, 32% dental medicine).
Some 25% of dentistry patients in Romania are Romanians living abroad, 15% are foreign nationals and 60% Romanian patients.
The highest in demand dentistry procedures are dental implants, ceramic crowns on zirconia support, dental whitening and root canals.
According to statistics, worldwide, there are over 7,000,000 people doing medical tourism and the medical tourism market has a value of over 30 billion euros.
Foreigners spend over 60 million euro annually for medical interventions in Romania
Over 20,000 foreigners come annually for medical operations in Romania, especially for plastic surgery and dental treatments, and spend on medical services, accommodation and food more than 60 million euro, according to the representatives in tourism and medicine.
‘There is no official statistics in this sense, but from our discussions with the representatives of medical tourism we can estimate that over 20,000 foreigners came last year for medical tourism in Romania’ stated for the agency Mediafax Dragos Raducan, vicechairman of the Federation of Employers in the Romanian tourism( FPTR) present at an international conference of medical tourism in Bucharest.
According to the national association of tourist agencies (ANAT) a foreigner spends, on average between 1,500 and 2,000 euros for a medical operation in Romania.
Such a tourist spends at least 14 days in Romania per year, as besides the treatment as such, he also needs to come back for consultatins. Thus, the average expenditure for accommodation and food is 1,500 euro per person.Out of the 20,000 foreigners, approximately 8,000 come for plastic surgery, 7,000 for complex dental operations (implants, etc)and the rest for stomach reduction operations, eye investigations in private hospitals and other treatments.
Most foreigners who come for medical services come from the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Israel and are between 40 and 60 years old, says Razvan Nacea, spokesperson of ANAT for medical tourism and manager of medical tourism agency.
‘To draw patients from other countries, the dental surgeries and clinics sign partnerships with agencies from abroad. The medical services in Romania are much cheaper as compared to many countries in Europe and the patients can save money by coming here’ Dragos Raducan said.
The Romanian society for oral rehabilitation and the Romanian society for dental medical tourism organised between 27-28 May, in partnership with FPTR an international conference on the issue of medical tourism and dental medical tourism.