The 16.3-rai site has already been acquired opposite Blue Canyon Country Club in Phuket, and is located just three kilometers from the Phuket International Airport, David Boucher, BIH’s Chief Partnerships Officer, told the large gathering of about 80 attendees at the British Chamber of Commerce Thailand (BCCT) Multi-Chamber Phuket Evening on Medical Tourism held at the Courtyard by Marriott Phuket Town earlier this month.
The first phase of the Bumrungrad campus in Phuket will include the 150-bed boutique hospital and an advanced diagnostic and anti-ageing center.
Once complete, services offered at the new Phuket facilities will include VitalLife Wellness and Anti-Aging, Family & Internal Medicine, Cardiology, Orthopedic & Spine Surgery, Cosmetic Surgery, Gender Affirmation and Urology, among others.
“It’s not a secret… It’s incredibly bullish. I can feel the optimism just by driving around the island,” Mr Boucher said during his presentation, ‘Medical Value Travel’.
“Bumrungrad has had demand for a clinical presence in Phuket for many years. Phuket is an ideal market to supplement Thailand’s worldwide leading destination for medical travelers,” he later told The Phuket News.
“There is an increasing demand worldwide for travelers to seek care abroad. Multiple drivers are fueling this growth, including the search for safe, quality care, excellent service and financial savings,” he added.
“Phuket offers a compelling healthcare opportunity, with 425,000 permanent residents, 5.4 million visitors in pre-COVID 2019, about 1,800 hotels, excellent restaurants, hundreds of tour guides and countless vistas and adventures to discover,” he added.
Regarding the resident population on the island, Mr Boucher notes, “This is important because like with Bumrungrad in Bangkok, our first and most immediate focus is with local Thai and expat patients.”
“Secondly, Phuket received approximately 5.4 million visitors in pre-COVID 2019 and almost half of the world’s population can reach Phuket within a six-hour flight.”
Mr Boucher himself was on his sixth visit to Phuket, and expects to move to Phuket within the coming months.
“In post-COVID world, a lot more people are crossing borders for elective procedures and for medications,” Mr Boucher explained.
Many people were exploring options outside their home countries due to the volume of procedures delayed by the pandemic, causing huge backlogs.
The UK National Health Service (NHS) waiting list is a huge backlog of about 10.4 million procedures. In the US alone the number of procedures for cataracts that are waiting to be performed is about 26 million.
“In Ontario, there is a backlog of about 1 million elective surgeries, and that’s just that one province in Canada,” Mr Boucher said.
“There are a number of countries around the world that have been working aggressively over the last seven to 10 years to improve their in-country care, such as Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE… Outside of the US, UAE has more Drake-commission accredited hospitals (Drake & Scull International) than any other country on the planet,” he noted.
However, Mr Boucher said Phuket was well placed to benefit from the expected surge in the medical tourism industry.
Phuket, with an estimated 1,800 hotels, could accommodate its share of what is globally expected to be a huge volume of medical tourists, he noted.
“And there are 39 airlines operating direct flights to Phuket. Do you have any idea how many other destinations would kill for this? That is a huge number,” he pointed out.
Mr Boucher explained that the initial construction underway at Mai Khao is for just Phase I of the boutique hospital. “We are planning to build another 100 beds in a separate, but connected, building. We are working with architects [on this] now,” Mr Boucher said.
In terms of a ‘boutique hospital’, the key competitive factor will not just be the range of specialist services provided, but “over the top” quality of service, he noted
“We pride ourselves in quality of service,” he said. BIH has been recognised as the best hospital in Thailand for three consecutive years by Newsweek, and is the only Thai hospital on Newsweek list of ‘World’s Best Hospitals 2023’
NUMBERS
The number of visitors coming to Phuket continues to rise, explained Bhummikitti Ruktaengam, Advisor to Phuket Chamber of Commerce, during his ‘Phuket Business Outlook’ presentation.
“This year from Jan 1 to June 30 we had about 1.8 million international visitors arriving by direct flights into the country. But how many [of those] come to Phuket?” he posed.
“Before COVID it was about 30%, but now about half of the total number [of international tourists] arriving come to Phuket,” he said, using figures from the TravelLink tourism data portal, which uses not only government figures but also direct input from tourism businesses.
“We expect about 8mn tourists this year, which is pretty much already a very good recovery,” Mr Bhummikitti said.
“If we look at Russia, compared with the first six months of 2019, we are at 105% already. Other source markets were actually lower [than in 2019 H1], namely from India and China. We expect more Chinese later as problems are resolved, such as with the issuing of e-visas and the Thai consulate in China not working very well. and people needing to renew their passports because they expired during COVID, is still affecting the number [of arrivals from China,” he added.
HOLISTIC APPROACH
Among the other speakers at the event was Sukhchaensingh ‘Sam’ Sethi, Vice Chairman of the
Phuket Chamber of Commerce, who highlighted the launch of the ‘Phuket Privilege Card’.
Through the ‘Phuket Privilege Card’ project, the chamber will provide services to facilitate investment into the province.
“The PPC will be launched sometime in August,” Mr Sethi said.
Manatase Annawat, President of Thailand Privilege Card, was also present to explain the strategy his organisation is employing in providing services to cardholders through his ‘Long-term Residency, Privileges and Lifestyle’ presentation.
A key element of Mr Manatase’s presentation was that Thailand Privilege Card was currently looking for partners to join the scheme to provide medical tourism-related services to members.
Closing the event was David Arell, Chief Operating Officer of Development Management Group (DMG), who explained how true ‘Smart buildings’ had the potential to greatly improve business operations through much more than just connectivity, but also through design.