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Updated Tuesday, January 31, 2012 0:06 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Hospitals ready for Chinese medical tourists

The China Post news staff--Taiwan will see its first group of mainland Chinese tourists visiting for the sole purpose of undergoing health checkups and plastic surgery in February, under approval from the Executive Yuan in January.

In the past, Chinese tourists were only allowed to visit using tourist or business visas. It was only in January that the Executive Yuan consented to giving out visas to those visiting Taiwan to undergo health checkups and medical aesthetic-oriented surgeries. Among the 30 government-listed medical facilities, Shin Kong Memorial Hospital (新光醫院) will be the first to welcome Taiwan's first group of health and beauty-seeking Chinese.

According to Hong Zi-ren (洪子仁), executive manager of the Shin Kong Hospital Health Management Center, the 26-member group from Liaoning Province will arrive in Taiwan on Feb. 13. The group consists of high-ranking hospital and governmental officials as well as businessmen with high social status. The group aims to “experience the service procedures of the Taiwanese hospitals.”

The main focus of their trip will be the health checkup, Hong said. The group will participate in the hospital's free health forum the day after they arrive, in which physicians will discuss the secrets to living a healthy lifestyle and brief the group on how the checkups are to be conducted. Day three is D-day, when members of the group will go through custom-designed health checkups.

Because most members of the group are men over 45 years of age — a population of high cardiovascular disease and cancer risks — the hospital will organize advanced examinations such as an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan, a 256-slice CT (computed tomography) scan, and a PET (Positron emission tomography) scan in the health checkup for each individual.

The estimated price begins at over NT$10,000, and members of the group will receive full health status reports one day before they depart Taiwan, Hong said.

The second group, a total of 22 people from Urumqi (the capital of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), will arrive mid-February, and will spend three of its eight days in Taiwan at Changhwa's Chang Bing Show Chwan Memorial Hospital (彰濱秀傳醫院), undergoing health checkups.

The Show Chwan Hospital asserted that the comprehensiveness of its health checkup system would impress the Chinese visitors that were just “checking Taiwan out.” Also, the potential consumer impact of the “health checkup tourist groups” could stir up is immense, with their members mostly affluent and of high social status, the hospital believes.

Advertising Endorser?

Those in the medical field encouraged the government to find an advertising endorser to further hearten the rising aesthetic medical surgery market. Hong also suggested that a television drama series should be filmed, an approach South Korea had successfully practiced.

The government should focus on developing the Mainland Chinese market, taking into account the geographical proximity and accessibility it shares with Taiwan, Hong proposed, hoping the government would seize the opportunity to ride along the aesthetic surgery wave that is sweeping across Asia.

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Comments

January 31, 2012 bibotkngo57@

CT scan, MRI, and PET positron imaging are NOT usually recommended in routine physical check-up. The American Medical association itself had cautioned against using procedures that may have radiation and side effects in routine physical examinations. It just shows how greedy these large hospitals are in trying to use these radiation inducing machines in order to earn money. They have lost their medical ethics! These hospitals probably invested a large amount of money in purchasing these equipments and are trying to recover their money by attracting these ignorant mainlanders about their "HIGH END" imaging machines. These mainlanders probably will never know what hit them after they return to the mainland and there is no way for them to get their money back!

February 3, 2012 ludahai_twn@

Who is to prevent Chinese from overwhelming the system thus making it difficult for local citizens and residents to access medical services? It is well known in Hong Kong that an influx of expectant mothers from China has made it difficult for Hong Kongers to access birthing facilities in the "SAR".