KARACHI: Highlighting government efforts aimed at promoting medical tourism, speakers at a conference on Friday said that Pakistan was putting in place a connected set of visa, insurance, equipment and payment policies to position the country as a destination forinternational patients, with a single national portal under development to carry the entire patient journey.
They were speaking at a panel discussion during the 23rd Health Asia InternationalExhibition and Conferences, organised by Health Asia in collaboration with the Pakistan Health Travel Council and supported by the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination.
Dr Farhan Essa Abdullah representing Dr Essa Health Services (Pvt) Ltd, also a member of the National Health Tourism Working Group constituted by the Federal Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination, said that policy work now extended well beyond the incoming patient.
‘Visa policy is being made for patients as well as for doctors, who are willing to come to Pakistan, along with their technicians, to conduct treatments here, and for insurance companies interested in coming to Pakistan. That is what an ecosystem means,’ he said.
A national portal, he shared, was being developed that would bring the separate pieces into one place. ‘There is a portal being made that will have each and everything in it, including visa and insurance, he said.
‘The money side is being worked on as well, how funds come into Pakistan and how they go out, including doctors’ earnings. With the support of the federal health ministry and the Special Investment Facilitation Council, things are moving much further ahead than people realise,’ he said, stressing that quality remained the foundation of the effort.
The panel was chaired by Dr SyedJunaid Ali Shah, the president of the Private Hospitals and Clinic Solutions, and co-chaired by Dr Farhat Abbas, chief executive officer of Aga Khan University Hospital and Health System, alongside Dr Abdullah. It was moderated by Hans Kedzierski, CEO of Novacare Hospital Islamabad.
Discussion also covered the National Health Tourism Financial, Payment and Medical Liability Framework, which proposes four guarantees for every international patient: a defined payer, a published and itemised price, treatment only at accredited hospitals, and insured protection if something goes wrong.
The speakers noted that Gulf states spent more than $15 billion each year on outbound medical travel, and that procedure cost in Pakistan ran 50 per cent to 70pc below comparable markets.
The framework proposes payment routes covering self-paying, insured and institutionally sponsored patients, with funds held in regulated treatment escrow accounts, a standardised guarantee of payment issued before admission, a claims settlement standard of under 30 days, a dedicated State Bank of Pakistan foreign exchange code for health tourism receipts, and a Patient Protection Fund financed by a levy on international patient revenue.
It targets $500 million in foreign exchange inflows by year three and more than 10,000 jobs across hospitals, hospitality and logistics.
The plenary session was chaired by Arshad Qaimkhani, CEO of the Prime Minister’s Sehat Card Programme, with keynote addresses from Dr Emin Çakmak, founding chairman of the Turkish Healthcare Travel Council and the Global Healthcare Travel Council; Mariya Afsar Nazari, Secretary General of the European Health and Medical Tourism Association; Dr Victoria Chirko of Global Medical Trust Advisory; and Aygen Yenigün, founder and CEO of Healthy in Turkey.
Dr Zakiuddin Ahmed, co-founder and convenor of Health Asia, delivered the closing address.