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Thousands of people travel to Romania to treat their health conditions - an opportunity for local health tourism
Thousands of people travel to Romania to treat their dental conditions, and that can be an opportunity for health tourism, Vasile Cepoi, State Adviser to the Prime Minister, said on Wednesday.'Thousands of people are treated in dental clinics here, which promote by themselves. They [the foreign patients] pay a quarter of what they would pay for these services in their country. That could be an opportunity for the Romanian health tourism,' Cepoi told the 2013 International Tourism Conference, hosted by the Parliament Palace.
Speaking about the spa and health tourism in Romania, Cepoi underscored that there is a significant potential - in terms of ophthalmology, plastic surgery, cardiac surgery, intervention cardiology, cardiac and orthopedic prosthesis and in-vitro fertilization - for the development of health tourism in Romania.
'We have resources, we are motivated and we want to develop this activity to the benefit of the patients from Romania, from Europe and from anywhere in the world,' Cepoi pointed out.
The state adviser explained that in Romania 'the concept of health tourism is not sufficiently defined,' promotion is absent and the lack of trust in health tourism can be corrected by implementing a quality management system in health tourism.
'An internationally recognized quality management system of those services and a liability insurance system for those providing the related services are necessary. The patient of medical tourism must know how possible damage can be covered and whom to contact in case there is a problem,' said Cepoi.
PM Ponta's adviser reminded the fact that the Government has decided to establish an inter-ministerial working group to draw up the Health Tourism Strategy, which has as goals identifying problems that prevent health tourism from developing, the incentives for the development of the said sector, and reviewing the relevant legislation.
'The Government has ordered the review, by autumn, of all health service providers that can offer quality services and holding an international conference with the participation of health service providers and tour operators specializing in health tourism,' Cepoi added.
In Romania, five spa resorts are certified, by Government's decision, and 10 other resorts will be so, according to Minister for SMEs and Tourism Maria Grapini. Romania currently has over 120 spa resorts with natural resources having therapeutic properties, of which 40 are tourist resorts of national interest and 80 of local interest.