Top 10 Medical and Surgical Vacations in Asia and the Far East
Asia represents some of the cheapest cosmetic surgery solutions and countries such as Thailand have thriving industries dominated by gender reassignment procedures and cosmetic surgery. India is also hitting the forefront of the industry with a number of surgeries including hip replacements and heart ops.
- Bangkok Health Services, Thailand
Thailand has long treated western expatriates across Southeast Asia who work for western companies with flexible, worldwide medical insurance plans. Expat women have long used Thai hospitals to have their babies. Bangkok has now focused on the growth in medical tourism and built the Bangkok International Medical Centre. It offers services in 26 languages and recognizes cultural and religious dietary restrictions. There are six medical facilities in Bangkok that boast hospital accreditation from the United States. Other tourist-oriented medical communities include cosmetic surgery, dental treatments, eye surgery, kidney dialysis and organ transplantation.
India is now considered one of the leading countries promoting medical tourism and even does medical outsourcing, where subcontractors provide services to the overburdened medical care systems in western countries. India’s top-rated education system is churning out an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 doctors and nurses each year.
Western patients usually get a package deal that includes flights, transfers, hotels, treatment and often a post-operative vacation. You can have hip surgery, open-heart surgery, hip and knee replacements, dentistry, bone marrow transplants, cancer therapy or even pediatric heart surgery.
- Phuket, Thailand
This is one of the best places to get a nip-and-tuck and then relax on vacation at a post-recovery resort. Reputable spa/clinics in Phuket offer holistic healing services for good prices and their reputations can rival the West. Thai plastic surgery do breast implants and blepharoplasty (a procedure to add a crease to the eyelid) they also do gender reassignment surgeries.
Cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, laser vaginal surgery, in vitro fertilization (IVF), hair transplantation and cosmetic dentistry are just some of the choices of people around the world seeking state of the art medical treatment in Malaysia. Charges and costs are competitive with favorable exchange rates and the expertise is high. Friendly English speaking staff provide a pleasant environment plus there are many luxurious resorts to recuperate in afterwards. Malaysia attracts patients from surrounding Southeast Asian countries and also the West.
Medical treatment here is a fraction of what they might cost in the US or Europe and the Philippine medical and nursing curricula are more challenging than most southeast Asian countries. Many doctors acquire their postgraduate or fellowship training from well-known institutions in developed countries. One clinic in Quezon City promotes its plastic surgeon as such with low prices on packages including breast augmentation, face and neck lifts, liposuction, reduction rhinoplasty and tummy tucks.
- Bangkok Plastic Surgery, Thailand
Tummy tucks, eyelid lifts and chin liposuction are just some of the packages offered in Thailand that include general aesthetic, cosmetic procedure, a one-day hospital stay and three day hotel or resort recovery. There’s also mammoplasty, rhinoplasty, hair transplants and alternative treatments like weight loss programs.
- Dental work, Singapore
Singapore is marketing medical and dental services at rock bottom prices. Many patients come from neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia and patient numbers from developed countries like the US and UK are beginning to choose Singapore. Not only is Singapore clean and cosmopolitan but many have international hospital accreditation from the US, UK and Australia..
- Hong Kong
Hong Kong is the place to come for wide ranging health care – 12 private hospitals and more than 50 public – plus English speakers and UK Trent Accreditation and some have JCI as well. With shopping, food courts and islands where you can relax, the recuperation afterwards will pass easily.
- Ayuverda treatments, India
If you want a more holistic treatment consider the excellent centers in Kerala, Goa or the Himalaya for Ayuverda. This traditional system of holistic medicine has been practiced in India for more than 5,000 years and works on the principle that the body comprises five elements: fire, water, ether, air and earth. Treatments can be mud wraps, Thai massage or an oil bath. There are special diets, a fabulous pool and gym.
- Japanese baths
Taking a bath in Japan takes on a whole different meaning; it’s about far more than getting clean. You shed your clothes and daily concerns, lather and scrub, then rinse and sink into clean hot water where you can relax, contemplate and feel at harmony with your surroundings. Public baths (sento) were once used daily for people to wash and meet their friends. Even now that most houses are equipped with private bathtubs the public baths are still very popular.