Take advantage of the summer break to get ready. More and more people of national and foreign origin decide to spend their summer vacations in some treatment related to improving their health or well-being. Other times, the intervention cannot wait, but if the situation allows it, the fact that it is carried out in a country like Spain allows it to also offer a rest bonus. Despite the fact that some still associate health tourism with something similar to fraud by foreigners against the social security system, today medical tourism is a economic sector with very good diagnosis and a lot of future.
In many cases, it is the excellent reputation of public and private healthcare, or cheaper prices than in their countries of origin, which makes many patients choose Spain for certain interventions. “Medical tourism is focused on attracting patients who, in their places of origin, do not find a solution or treatment for a health problem due to different factors, price, lack of experience, lack of health resources or lack of technological equipment,” he says. Javier Casquero Lara, director of the International Department of the Hospitales de Madrid Group. “This makes them look for places or countries where they can be treated, attracted by the experience of certain doctors and hospitals.
If the characteristics of the intervention allow it, complementary services related to leisure are usually offered”. For example, Casquero Lara explains, “at HM Hospitales we complement the medical offer with service packages such as accommodation, transport and, depending on the conditions of the patient or family, we recommend or offer tour packages. Sometimes, although they are treated in inland cities, such as Madrid, the recovery, for example, can take place in a place on the coast. Thanks to the infrastructures that Spain has, from Madrid by means of the AVE you can be in the Valencia beach to recover and rest in less than two hours.
There are also centers that are specialized in very serious pathologies, which cannot wait, and whose medical services are requested by both nationals and foreigners. This is the case of the University Clinic of Navarra. For Íñigo Goenaga, director of Corporate Development at this institution, “the Clinic has a long history of helping national and international people who come for serious illnesses, especially complicated oncology or surgical treatments, both in our original clinic in Pamplona and in the new one in Madrid ». One of the most relevant services are the proton therapy treatments that are currently offered at the Navarra Clinic in Madrid.
Fertility
According to Saray Catalan Ventura, from the Next Fertility Clinic, with offices in Valencia, Murcia and Seville, «currently in our clinic in Valencia, approximately 50% of our patients come from abroad, especially from Holland, Germany and Italy. Although it is true that many of them take advantage of their vacations to undergo treatment, mainly in the months of July and September, they are not the majority.
In this regard, Dr. Carmen Calatayud, from the Crea Institute in Valencia, acknowledges that her center “has been working on assisted reproduction since 1988. Current treatments have not only dramatically increased pregnancy rates, but we can help in cases and situations that were previously unthinkable and, therefore, our audience is broader and from different backgrounds». In this sense, at CREA they are pioneers and experts in the study and treatment of men, which has allowed them to “solve many cases without the need to resort to assisted reproduction techniques”.
rehabilitation
Elisa Ferrando, director at the European Musculoskeletal Institute of Valencia (IMSKE), points out that “we receive patients from all over the world who contact us attracted by the specialization of the center and its multidisciplinary nature; that is, we offer, in the same place, diagnosis, treatment -surgical or not- and rehabilitation thanks to the teamwork of traumatologists, rheumatologists, rehabilitation doctors, physiotherapists, re-adaptors and pain treatment specialists». In her case, she points out, the countries that are repeated the most are: Eastern European countries, the United Kingdom, Latin American countries.
Wellness and weight loss
Taking care of our body to achieve a healthy balance between mental, physical and emotional levels, resulting in a state of general well-being or wellness is also another of the most popular packages. This is what Elena Beltrán, head of Product at Palasiet, points out, one of the first Thalassotherapy centers in Spain. «Most of our guests are nationals -says she Beltrán-. Our foreign users are preferably European, especially French and English». Beltrán points out that, on vacations, by having more free time, “the number of stays increases, but as it is an establishment focused on health care, the influx is continuous.” Their most demanded service is the weight loss program, in which they offer three intensities: mild, moderate and intense; and time, of 7, 10, 14, 21 or more nights.
For his part, the Hotel Las Dunas in Estepona offers programs from 7 days to 3 weeks based on the Method Healthouse, seeking to guide habits to a way of life reinforced in health, oriented to their happiness and well-being. The weight loss or ‘optimal weight’ programs are set up both at the Palasiet in Benicàssim and at the Hotel Las Dunas in Estepona so that users can change their lifestyle as much as possible. Normally, both physical exercise habits and their relationship with meals and the way of cooking should be worked on. “They are not just programs aimed at losing weight at a specific time” – Elena Beltrán del Palassiet clarifies – “our medical team made up of dieticians, psychologists, doctors, sports specialists and even our chef, help our patients understand why of that excess weight and tackle it effectively in the long term. And she adds: “it is essential that the patient knows how to identify what kind of hunger they feel, if it is real or anxiety, and consider whether they should eat or not.” Along the same lines, Auxiliadora Velázquez tells us that at the Hotel Las Dunas the patient is cared for by a multidisciplinary team: “We look for specific treatments for each person and focused on their own objectives.” Other health-related programs offered by this hotel are Anti-aging, Relax-Wellness and Detox, among others.