Jordan seeks to become medical hot spot of Middle East
Jordan Times - 14/11/2006
By Linda Al-Hindi
AMMAN — Jordan has four years to reach its plan to become a medical Mecca in the Middle East, but which stakeholders will pay for the marketing — the private sector, the government or both? In 2004, the Ministry of Health set a plan with the public and private sectors to generate $1 billion annually in medical tourism income by 2010.
"The strategy is good but has not yet been fully applied… we need the government to do more," Fawzi Hammouri, head of the Private Hospital Association and chief of the Specialty Hospital, told The Jordan Times. Official figures show that within the past three years, the health sector has been generating around $600 million annually in hospital fees from foreign patients alone. According to Hammouri, there are several issues that need to be addressed to move the industry forward. Among them, legislating malpractice laws and acquiring international accreditation.
"We are already working on accreditation for some hospitals and are in the third phase; I think it should finalise in one year," Hammouri said. But he points to what he sees as poor marketing of Jordan's medical assets as the largest drawback to reaching the 2010 goal.
"I think that the number one problem is that the government does not have a specialised campaign to market Jordan to foreign countries as a health retreat… if you look at travel advertisements, you will see Aqaba and Petra, but nobody mentions that we cater to medical tourists," Hammouri said. He stressed that the government's sparse participation in activities abroad to promote the industry, coupled with ineffective initiatives like opening a service office at the Queen Alia International Airport to help patients upon arrival, diminish a potential for a multi-billion dollar business.
"We do not need someone at the airport to receive patients, that is our job… all major airports have information booths if a person needs to get the address of a hospital or whatever," Hammouri said.
"We don't want to give it more importance than it deserves," he added. An office was opened at the airport in 1999 to help patients upon arrival and Jordanian embassies abroad were notified. It offers services such as quicker immigration desk processing, information brochures on all hospitals and tourist sites and direct transportation to the hospital of choice for the patient.
"We get prior information that a patient is arriving and then meet him/her at the aircraft door… we work to assist them in any way we can," Salim Kora, manager of the office, told The Jordan Times.
"Our main concern is that the majority of patients do not know of our service prior to arriving… some are agitated with the possible idea that we give information based on commission incentives — this is not true — we do not favour any particular hospital," Kora said. He said when patients are not pre-notified of the free airport service, it can get embarrassing.
"Once I tried to help a disabled man by taking his passport to stamp. After I walked away, he started yelling THIEF until I was surrounded… It was settled when the airport authorities realised that was not the case." But a Ministry of Health official defended the service saying it was necessary.
"Before this initiative, the patient would have to dodge at least 20 representatives of different hospitals, hotels and entrepreneurs waiting to grab business as patients exited the arrivals terminal," Dr. Ratib Hinnawi, director of the health tourism board and adviser to the health minister, said.
"This office is an important organisational office, and we have had many foreign health ministries thanking us for our advanced assistance to their citizens," he said. The health tourism board, pleased with the success of the airport office, has discussed setting up stations at land borders as well. According to Hinnawi, the ministry is working hard, but he believes government budget constraints hold back progress.
"In 2004, the Cabinet suggested we allocate funds from the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB). But after discussions, the JTB refused to release any funds because they considered their client- base different from ours," Hinnawi said.
"We want the Cabinet to see there is a current influx of $650 to $700 million annually in medical fees alone… this is not to mention the money spent in all the other areas in the country. The revenue affects all Jordanians," he said.
According to the JTB, the public and private health sectors are unwilling to put up any money to conduct joint promotion activities.
"The JTB itself is extremely willing to move in a joint venture with the health sector… we are talking about strategic marketing for short- and long-term impact. This we know how to do," JTB Managing Director Mazen Homoud told The Jordan Times.
"We have sent several draft agreements to the Health Ministry, yet cannot reach an accord because the health sector is unwilling to put up any funds. In order to promote any sector, we must do it in partnership," Homoud said. He explained that the JTB does work with other sectors to promote Jordan. In April, it joined the Ministry of Education for an educational road show in the Gulf states. According to Homoud, the project was successful and will likely continue with other promotions.
"In this project the Ministry of Education provided JD100,000 and our board added JD50,000. It's simple: How can we execute an effective marketing plan without financial contribution from the private health sector?" Homoud asked. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry contends that the foremost factor hurting the Private Hospital Association is that it is a weak entity.
"As an association they are not doing enough for themselves for the government to help," Minister of Health Saeed Darwazeh told The Jordan Times. According to the minister, medical tourism is very high on the government agenda, and if the association carried more weight, he could promote them better as an organised entity.
"I am from the private sector myself and believe that the less the government interferes [in private industry] the better," Darwazeh said. "Yet I have been working to try and advance the association as an organisation in order for the government to help further," he added. There are 56 private hospitals in Jordan and only a quarter of those are members of the association. In addition, any agreements between them have no legal bearing.
"In essence, they have no power. It is not even mandatory to be a part of their organisation," Hinnawi said.
"Any private hospital management is willing to pay around JD100,000 annually to market itself but it is not willing to pay JD1,000 to a collective fund for promotion. Competition is clouding their broader vision." Still, the industry has advanced. The Department of Statistics' latest figures show 130,000 persons entered the country for medical procedures in 2004. That same year, 1.8 persons entered with them as companions.
"This study was a couple of years ago; we have conducted an internal hospital study and found that there is around 20 per cent annual growth, Hammouri said of the Specialty Hospital. The health minister agrees that the industry is growing and envisions it to double in five years.
"Our doctors carry internationally recognised degrees and work in state-of- the-art facilities. Our hospitals are running at near-full capacity, and most of them are expanding because of the influx of foreign patients." For a country whose medical care costs are about one-tenth of US medical institutions, the majority of foreign patients still come from only countries in the region. According to officials, Sudan is the number one country sending patients to Jordan, followed by Iraq and the Gulf states. Among foreign patients, most come for heart, kidney, neurological and orthopaedic surgeries, Hammouri said. Joseph Kulang of southern Sudan had bypass heart surgery this month in Jordan. He was here in 2002 for major abdominal surgery and mentioned he will always return to Jordan for medical follow-ups.
"I am very pleased with the medical treatment I receive here… also I visited all the tourist sites. I enjoy my time in Jordan," Kulang told The Jordan Times. A 70-year-old foreign patient currently in the country concurred. Ali Mohammad from Libya recently underwent prostate surgery. He arrived earlier this month with his son and is staying in a rented apartment. "Many of my friends mentioned they had medical treatment in Jordan and recommended it. I will stay here for around 20 days but will not leave the country before touring it," Mohammad said. Medical tourism has become a worldwide, multi-billion-dollar industry, and Jordan is up against stiff competition. Many countries in the region are investing to become the Middle East medical hotspot.
"Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon and the Gulf are all in on the action," the health minister said. By comparison, last year a hospital in Asia treated 400,000 foreign patients — the highest number worldwide — from more than 150 countries. Medical tourism in Asia could generate up to $4.4 billion by 2012, according to a recent Newsweek article.
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