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3DEVELOPMENT OF MEDICAL TOURISM IN UZBEKISTAN 1 Turakulova Hilola, 2Saidov Dilshod Rustamovich
1"Silk Road" International University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage, 2Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Language and Global Studies Student https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11097148 Abstract. "Medical tourism is a conscious decision to travel abroad to seek affordable treatment and surgery, with no waiting period. In Asia and around the world, India and Singapore are well-known travel destinations as well as for medical tourism. (Anita Medhekar, 2014) ". At last, Uzbekistan has become quite prominent as a destination for advanced medical treatments. The article's goal is to convey an in-depth examination of the quality of medical services that Uzbekistan can offer to medical tourists from around the globe who are looking for reasonably priced, high-quality medical care and rehabilitation services. The introductory section of the paper provides a background to the medical tourism industry. "Section two makes a brief comparison of the prices for the medical procedures. Section three provides a clear explanation of what activities must be undertaken.(Anita Medhekar, 2014)
Keywords: medical tourism, Uzbekistan, global healthcare, affordable prices, best destination for medical tourism.
Аннотация. "Медицинский туризм - это осознанное решение отправиться за границу в поисках доступного лечения и хирургической операции без периода ожидания. В Азии и во всем мире Индия и Сингапур являются популярными направлениями для путешествий, а также для медицинского туризма. (Анита Медхекар, 2014) ". В конце концов, Узбекистан стал довольно популярным местом для проведения передовых медицинских процедур. Цель статьи - дать всестороннее представление о качестве медицинских услуг, которые Узбекистан может предложить медицинским туристам со всего мира, ищущим высококачественное медицинское обслуживание и реабилитацию по разумным ценам. Во вступительной части статьи представлена общая информация об индустрии медицинского туризма. "Во втором разделе приводится краткое сравнение цен на медицинские процедуры. В третьем разделе дается четкое объяснение того, какие действия необходимо предпринять.(Анита Медхекар, 2014)
Ключевые слова: медицинский туризм, Узбекистан, мировое здравоохранение, доступные цены, лучшее направление для медицинского туризма.
Annotatsiya. "Tibbiy turizm-bu kutish muddati bo'lmagan holda, arzon davolanish va jarrohlik amaliyotini izlash uchun chet elga sayohat qilish to'g'risida ongli qaror. Osiyoda va butun dunyoda Hindiston va Singapur tibbiy turizm bilan bir qatorda taniqli sayyohlik yo'nalishlari hisoblanadi. (AnitaMedhekar, 2014)". Nihoyat, O'zbekiston ilg'or tibbiy muolajalar maskani sifatida ancha ko'zga tashlandi. Maqolaning maqsadi-arzon narxlardagi, yuqori sifatli tibbiy yordam va reabilitatsiya xizmatlarini qidirayotgan dunyo bo'ylab tibbiy sayyohlarga O'zbekiston taklif qilishi mumkin bo'lgan tibbiy xizmatlar sifatini chuqur o'rganish. Maqolaning kirish qismida tibbiy turizm sohasi haqida ma'lumot berilgan. "Ikkinchi bo'lim tibbiy muolajalar narxlarini qisqacha taqqoslaydi. Uchinchi bo'limda qanday tadbirlarni amalga oshirish kerakligi haqida aniq tushuntirish berilgan.(AnitaMedhekar, 2014)
Kalit so'zlar: tibbiy turizm, O'zbekiston, global sog'liqni saqlash, arzon narxlar, tibbiy turizm uchun eng yaxshi manzil.
According to WHO, medical tourism is the type of tourists who choose to travel abroad to get medical treatment. Usually, the general actions taken are dental treatment, aesthetic care, elective surgery, and fertility treatment (Nadya Aviliyani Taufik & Wahyu Sulistiadi, 2018)" In compliance with the newest data, there are approximately 50 million medical tourists throughout the world annually. Summing up all the aforementioned information, it is clear that medical tourism is already a well-established lucrative industry with huge potential. Thus, developing medical tourism may act as a good asset for developing countries as is it can be an optimum way of investing their resources in an industry that has a potential of bringing fruitful results at the same time improving the conditions within the country itself. The purpose of the article is to make a systematic review on the services that Uzbekistan can create for medical tourists from all around the world seeking high quality and fairly inexpensive medical treatments and rehab services.
People are increasingly travelling to other countries for medical purposes, a development referred to as medical tourism. They found that a lot of the people who choose medical treatment overseas do so because of the cheaper prices involved as compared to those in their home countries (Smith & Forgione, 2007). Consequently, this is why nations are working towards and promoting medical tourism- they want more people to come for treatment. The other reason why people flock into hospitals is when they seek specialist service providers. Uzbekistan is a rapidly developing country with a huge potential in medicine. Thousands of difficult surgeries and treatments are widely performed in such cities like Samarkand and Tashkent with a high success rate overall. Nowadays, hospitals in Uzbekistan may offer various services for everybody regardless of their country.
"Currently, patients from U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East appear to be traveling to destinations in South and Southeast Asia such as India and in Central America such as Mexico for various medical and surgical procedures.(Avinash M. Waikar & Samuel D, Cappel, 2011)". "This is because the prices of medical procedures are significantly lower in the latter countries compared to the former."(Avinash M. Waikar & Samuel D, Cappel, 2011)" Uzbekistan may compete toe-to-toe with India, South and Southeast Asia in case of providing medical services even in cheaper cost whilst being in high quality. "Nowadays, In Uzbekistan there is an ongoing process of transfer from public medicine to private to attract foreign investments, as well as to increase the quality of services and increase coverage of medical services.(Ongoing Healthcare Transformation in Uzbekistan. RB Asia. Government procurement and commercial imports (of pharmaceuticals and equipment used by private clinics) are main ways for foreign companies to enter the healthcare market. (Ongoing Healthcare Transformation in Uzbekistan. RB Asia. Despite complexity of procurement procedures of the government and public sectors, they are considered as major importers of goods and services (Ongoing Healthcare Transformation in Uzbekistan. RB Asia. Solid relationships with decision-makers are useful, and employing of local representative or sales agent, additionally to visiting potential trade partners- especially in the initial stage of negotiations- is beneficial in developing professional relationships.(Ongoing Healthcare Transformation in Uzbekistan. RB Asia. Privatization plan of hospitals and development of private medical service are they initial steps that are taken towards the development of medical tourism in the premises of Uzbekistan"(Ongoing Healthcare Transformation in Uzbekistan. RB Asia. Summing up the date above, it is visible that the country is taking a huge step forward to serve and facilitate the medical tourists arriving to the country in high level.
One of the main decisive factors for potential medical tourists is the cost of the medical services. As is mentioned above, one of the important reasons why people choose to use medical
services abroad but not in the home country might be the extremely high prices for the same medical services. So far, the most visited venues for medical tourism were Central America such as Mexico, South and Southeast Asia for example India for different surgical and medical procedures as they had provided the inexpensive medical services and a good success rate afterwards.
Here is the table that partly demonstrates the comparisons of the prices of medical services in countries like India and UK.
Medical Procedure USA Mexico C«l Rita India Thailand Korea
Angioplasty Up to S37.000 $17,100 $14,000 $10,000 $9,000 $21,600
Hurl Bypass Up to $144,000 $21,100 $26,000 $10,000 $26,000 $26,000
Heart Vrfvc Replacement Up to SI70.000 $31,000 $31,000 $3,000 $24,000 $38,000
Knee Replacement Up № $50,000 $11,500 $12,000 $9,000 $14,000 $19,800
Hip Reairlacmg Up U> $30.00(H $13,400 $13,000 $10,000 $18,000 $22,900
Hip Replacement Up to $43,000 $13,800 $13,000 $10,000 $16,000 $18,450
Special Fusion Up to $100,000 $8,000 $16,000 $14,000 $13,000 $19,350
Face Lift Up to $15,000 $8,000 $6,500 $9,000 $8,600 $5,000
Rreast Implants Up to $10,000 $9,000 $4,000 $6,500 $5,700 $13,600
Rhino Plasty Up to $8,000 $5,000 $6,000 $5,500 $5,400 $6,000
Lap Rand/liana trie Up to $30,000 $9,200 $9,000 $9,500 $14,000 $11,500
Hysterectomy Up to $15,000 $7,500 $6,000 $7,500 $7,000 $11,000
Dental Implant Up to $2,000-10,000 $1,000 $1,100 $1,000 $1,000 $2,000
Nolo these piiccs me as of 2010. Source. hitp7A»wv% mculicattouiism.cam/oumpjte^cuji php'lang^rn.
As is shown in the table 1 medical fees for the same medical treatments in India are considerably cheaper that compared to the ones shown in the UK which makes India an optimum place for medical tourists to receive medical help. However, nowadays the medical treatment available in Uzbekistan is proven to be in the level to be competing with the ones in Southeast Asia such as India and in Central America not only in terms of the quality and success rates but with fair prices as well. In a certain level the prices for the medical treatments in Uzbekistan is considerably affordable compared to aforementioned nations.
Table 2 depicts the comparison between the most common medical procedures between Uzbekistan and countries like India, UK pricewise.
Procedure
Uzbekistan ($) Approx
Open Heart Surgery $1,000 Facial Surgery $600
Neurosurgery $1700
Plastic Surgery $700
Biopsy $300
Simple Brain Rumor $1,300
UK ($) Approx $18,000 $13,000 $21,000 $10,000 $4,300
India ($) Approx $4,800 $4,500 $6,800 $6,600 $1,200
https://www.indoamericanhealth.com/cancer-treatment-in-uzbekistan.html https://med24.uz/uz/klinika/best-medium-clinic#
"Other reasons for the increased medical tourism could be the improvement in the quality of medical facilities and related infrastructure, reputation of the Asian medical professionals, physician specialties along with the cost savings (Avinash M. et. all , 2011). Most countries also offer a variety of tourist and pilgrim destinations" (Avinash M. et. all, 2011). After the getting
treatments, it is essential to patience to receive a proper rehabilitation in peaceful environment. It worth to mention that Uzbekistan is a home for rehab facilities and areas designed for recreation after the hard treatments.
What needs to be done?
"To promote medical tourism, the host country can undertake improvements in infrastructure, transportation, security etc. How can the government establish priorities? (Avinash et. all, 2011)" "Which cities get attention first? (Avinash M. et. all, 2011)". "Different cities probably get different numbers and types of medical tourists requiring different medical services (Avinash M. . et. all, 2011)". "The host country government can look at not just the number of medical tourists visiting the city or the region but their net economic impact on the city or the region (Avinash M. et. all, 2011)". "The host country can also initiate research on the experiences of the past patients who had visited the country for medical tourism (Avinash M. et. all, 2011 )".
REFERENCES
1. Leggat, P. (2015). Medical Tourism. Australian Family Physician, 44(1-2), 16-21.
2. Medhekar, A. (2014). Government Policy Initiatives for Developing Sustainable Medical Tourism Industry. GSTF Journal on Business Review, 3(3), 95-105. https://doi .org/10.5176/2010-4804_3.3.330
3. Taufik, N. A., & Sulistiadi, W. (2018). The Impact of Medical Tourism Industry for the Hospital Services and Marketing Activities: A Systematic Review. ARSI, 5(1), 42-48.
4. Waikar, A. M., Cappel, S. D., & Tate, U. S. (2011). Challenges and Opportunities for Developing Countries from Medical Tourism. Journal of Business and Economics, 2(5), 397404. Ongoing
5. Healthcare Transformation in Uzbekistan. RB Asia
6. https://en.rbasia.uz/zdravohranenie-sektor uzbekistan#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20Constitution%2C%20residents,aid%20stati ons%2C%20and%20state%20hospitals.
7. https://med24.uz/uz/klinika/best-medium-clinic#
8. https://www.indoamericanhealth.com/cancer-treatment-in-uzbekistan.html
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