Medical tourism sets Latvia in its sights

RIGA - The international flow of tourists seeking qualified medical services abroad is starting to move toward the health care market in Latvia. These patients now consider the advantages of getting treatment in private clinics in Riga, as opposed to receiving treatment in their home country or going to India or Turkey for medical services. Helping this trend, beginning in the middle of 2009, a systematic program was started by local ‘medical tourism’ agencies specifically targeting these tourists.

Latvian medicine is starting to feel the loss of its workforce, as foreign companies work to entice qualified Latvian doctors away, and this means a lack of specialists in the future. This was one of the reasons prodding local clinics, looking to stave off a declining patient base, began this endeavor to attract patients from other countries, where prices for medical procedures are much higher, or quality is in doubt. The inward flow of medical tourists should provide work for local doctors and cover the expense of new and expensive high level medical equipment.
This is not a new tendency, and has been seen before, though the efforts haven’t been so organized. Until now, patient visits were chaotic, made by tourists from different countries, not just from the closest, like Scandinavian countries and Russia, but also from the UK and Ireland, Italy, and even the U.S.

Reasons for the growing medical tourism trade include attractive prices, with procedures costing up to 50 percent less than in the patients’ home countries, depending on the type of procedure performed. Latvian practitioners say that their services are lower cost, but not ‘cheap.’
Clinics in Latvia are well equipped with the latest technologies, and doctors are experienced; some of them are known abroad and even participate in educating doctors from other countries. A sufficient number of professionals offering a wide range of specializations allow for working with patients faster than in some other countries, and means no waiting lines.

And the services are coordinated with good transport and accommodation arrangements. The latest to join the queue is low-cost airline WizzAir, which started flights to Riga at the end of March.
Nataliya Orlova, Dental Estetika dental clinic director, says that when choosing a destination, patients usually pay attention to international healthcare accreditation of medical institutions they choose. Many clinics decide not just to work for this accreditation, but also to become members of a specialized association, which can show a high level of quality and standards practiced.

The main organization that can be called a ‘guide’ in this industry is the WHO (World Health Organization), which launched the World Alliance for Patient Safety and Medical Tourism Association. This is “The first and only international non-profit trade association for the medical tourism and global healthcare industry,” which started a pilot-project for certification of medical tourism facilitators. One of the missions of the association is to bring awareness of the high level of quality healthcare in different countries. Those medical tourism facilitators who applied for certification will be listed on the Web site of association.

The program cost is 2,500 USD and will provide certification for two years, after which it will require to renew. The MTA also calculated a cost chart for different medical procedures in different countries, though as of yet there are no Latvian prices despite the fact that one Latvian agency already is a member of MTA.

Globally, the number of individuals seeking medical help in foreign locales each year is large and growing, adding additional income to state budgets through higher tax collection. Attracting at least a few percent of these travelers to Latvia would provide more work for doctors and boost state coffers, say analysts. Despite the fact that already last autumn the Ministry of Health released information about supporting the development of medical tourism in Latvia, no real support has been made, and private clinics still have to go it alone, or, as some clinics did recently, to make an alliance.
The first such alliance in Riga is called ‘Baltic Care.’ The group offers an almost full range of services, from dental care to plastic surgery. This, however, is not the only organization assisting medical travelers in Latvia.

Liga Baranovska, manager of ‘Health Tour Latvia,’ stresses that health tourism is not a new tendency for Latvia. In Soviet times, the seaside region of Jurmala was one serving medical tourists, taking care of patients looking for treatment in its sanatoriums. Most of those tourists were travelers from Soviet countries. Even now, Russia takes 2nd place in those coming to the city, as Latvians themselves are the most frequent.
In the last quarter of 2009, approximately 3,000 tourists from Russia visited Jurmala, mostly staying in resort hotels and sanatoriums for the wide range of treatments offered. Cost per night, including some specified treatments, is around 50 euros.

Tatyana Dabolina, marketing director of sanatorium ‘Jaunkemeri,’ says that since Soviet times, a lot has changed, and that now there are more local customers in the sanatoriums than foreigners. She mentioned the current visa regime, politics and higher prices as reasons keeping foreigners away. She also says that, for example, in Lithuania prices for similar experiences are a bit lower, and service operators also receive municipality support. Jaunkemeri, she adds, looks forward to improving relations with Russia and other countries to increase the number of customers.