Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Vicissitude]

I saw this article and I was wondering how this might affect us over here as ESL Teachers. I was thinking we might possibly cash in too by teaching English to these doctors and staff in the hospitals. You know, nothing is more irritating to a health tourist than having to teach one's own doctor English while trying to obtain an organ transplant surgery.

Here it is: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070306/hl_afp/skoreahealthtourism_070306103518

SEOUL (AFP) - South Korea has made its first moves to join Asia's lucrative health tourism business by setting up an agency to attract foreign patients, officials said Tuesday.

The organization, the Council for Korea Medicine Overseas Promotion, will market tourist packages that include treatment at local hospitals, health ministry officials said.

Inaugurated on Monday, the agency will be jointly financed by the government and 28 hospitals taking part in the project.

The government has set aside 570 million won (601,000 dollars) for 2007, with each member hospital to pay 15 million won in fees.

"We need to enhance the overseas awareness of South Korea's medical service which is low-priced but of high quality," said Park Jong-Eok, a ministry official in charge of the project.

Initially, the council's main targets are 440,000 Americans of Korean ancestry who have no health insurance, and Japanese and Chinese patients who want cosmetic surgery or treatments based on Korean Oriental medicine.

As South Korean medical standards improve, more extensive treatments would be offered.

Park said the average daily charge for an in-patient at a US hospital is 3,726 dollars, 13 times higher than in South Korea.

The average charge for outpatients comes to 1,300 dollars in the United States, up to nine times more than South Korea, and charges in Japan are two to three times greater than in this country.

The council will act as an integrated marketing network for individual hospitals.

South Korean hospitals are especially advanced in services such as organ transplants, plastic surgery and stomach cancer surgery, Park said.

"Many patients are coming from China and Japan to receive plastic surgery here," Park said.

The popularity of Korean pop culture in the region has also contributed to the growing number of tourist patients, especially from China.

In 2005 South Korea accommodated some 10,000 foreign patients. The country hopes to attract 13,000 health tourists this year just to the 28 hospitals taking part in the project, he said.

Health tourism is big business in other Asian countries such as India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.