How Kenyan Medical Sector can cope with Medical Tourism

There has been great concern from many quarters about the number of people flying to India seeking treatment. As we complain it would be more beneficial if we reflected introspectively on how we can improve our medical sector and ensure we can compete with India and other medical tourism hubs.

According to Wikipedia; Medical tourism is the travel of people to a place other than where they normally reside for the purpose of obtaining medical treatment in that country.

There has been a surge in patients from Kenya and Africa going to India and other Asian countries to receive treatment due to various reasons such as cost of treatment, quality of service etc.

While it is justified for patients to travel to India and other countries for treatment, the long term effect on the Kenyan economy may be detrimental. Further the Medical sector will stagnate or even decline to insufficient demand to sustain it. To bring the point home, India’s medical tourism sector in 2015 was estimated to be worth US$3 billion and was projected to grow to $7-8 billion by 2020.

In my honest opinion, the Kenyan Government and medical stakeholders needs to rethink its business model focusing on how future hospital will look like as long term strategy while capturing some of the Dollars going to India and other nations in the short to medium term.

I reckon that an overhaul of the way health care is delivered in Kenya; focusing on collaboration rather than competition since the proverbial cake is big enough for everyone. First, Instead of Leading hospitals expanding their bed capacities to serve the masses they should become smaller, focusing on complex services which require specialist knowledge or technologies. Access to medical service has been punitive to majority of the population since private hospitals incur huge capital outlay and need to recoup their investment which is obviously reflected on their prices. By focusing on specialist knowledge and technologies, the hospital would be serving a bigger population affordably due to economies of scale.

Further the rigid boundaries between medical departments should be broken down, allowing resources to be shared between them more flexibly.

Meanwhile, routine work should be undertaken at lower costs by county hospitals, clinics and dispensaries. Leading hospitals need to build stronger links with these community health care providers, sharing clinical expertise within these networks. Case managers then become increasingly important, coordinating patient care throughout the system.

The specific recommendations also include the following: Leading hospitals need to strengthen their partnerships with universities, businesses and other hospitals. This would allow them to continue to act as research hubs and training centers, while benefiting from networks of experience, Hospitals should establish an independent patient advisory council whose work would be to transparently monitor the quality of service of the various medical facilities, receive patient complaints (Public confidence in the Kenya Medical Practitioners and dentist Board is low due to inaction on rogue Doctors).This would have the effect of bringing public confidence to the sector.

Leading hospitals need to design new ways to deal with ever-increasing bodies of clinical knowledge. New technologies should allow them to filter this information and rapidly disseminate it to professionals throughout the health care network.

In summary, leading public and private hospitals should move from provision of routine care. Instead, they would become multidisciplinary centers of excellence, receiving referrals of difficult cases and coordinating health care provision throughout the counties.

In addition, clinical staff should be brought into management, allowing their medical experience and expertise to inform health care planning. At the same time, patient satisfaction should be put at the heart of decision-making. Hospitals will need to embrace new technologies in order to monitor and treat patients efficiently.