Hadeel Al Rawabdeh - Amman

"The sector without a father, an economic giant was demolished by many arguments." Dr. Omar Al-Razzaz, Chairman of Jordan Chamber of Commerce, Nael Kabariti, discussed the medical tourism sector in the Kingdom during several meetings between the government and chambers of industry and commerce recently.

In contrast, data and statistics of some associations and bodies related to therapeutic tourism to the rise in the number of patients coming from abroad for the purposes of treatment in Jordan, where the number of about 34 thousand visitors since the beginning of this year until July, according to the statistics of the Tourism Authority, and nearly sixty thousand Patients admitted to the Kingdom's hospitals, three times as many as they visited outpatient clinics in 2018, according to Director of Medical Tourism Directorate Dr. Suleiman Al - Amarin.

The disparity in the level of talk about the reality of medical tourism - at a time when King Abdullah II stresses the need for coordination between the public and private sectors to invest what Jordan enjoys to promote this sector as the most important engines of the national economy - returned to the forefront the question about the real reality of medical tourism.

Poor promotion
Obesity Surgery Consultant, accredited by the International Association of Obesity Surgery Mohammed Khreis believes that the medical tourism sector is in good shape, but he suffers from weak promotion of medical competencies and advanced health services in addition to the natural tourist attractions in the Kingdom, such as the Dead Sea, Ma'in Falls and others, he told Al Jazeera Net.

King affirms that Jordan has the ingredients to become a distinguished destination for medical tourism (Petra)

He criticized d. Khreis concentrated the efforts of the Ministry of Health on patients after entering the country through its therapeutic tourism office at the airport, rather than activating health supplements at the Jordanian embassies in the world, to attract new patients instead of going to countries that are now competing strongly in this sector such as India and Turkey, he said.

He points out in his talk to Al Jazeera Net that there is a good opportunity to attract patients from new countries suffering from high rates of obesity, for example, as an attractive surgery for medical tourism, which adopts the system of "waiting lists" such as Britain, after he succeeded in transferring a number of his patients from London For treatment in Jordan rather than waiting for their role in British government hospitals.

In his view, the solution begins with the participation of the private medical sector in the promotion and marketing of their expertise and services along with the Ministry of Health, especially the most attractive specialties of medical tourism, such as bariatric surgery and techniques, heart surgery, dermatology, cosmetology and hair transplantation, according to him.

For his part, Abdullah Ali al-Hindawi, adviser and international expert in the field of medical tourism, in an interview with the island Net - the government decision to amend some instructions on visas for a number of restricted nationalities who have been excluded because of the security and political conditions in their countries in the last four years, such as Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Yemen.

Contradiction statistics
Al-Hindawi attributed the decline of medical tourism in the past period to what he called the "contradiction" in the statistics of the number of incoming patients, issued by several bodies related to the sector, which led to the confusion in making economic and investment decisions.

He pointed to a study conducted to assess the reality of medical tourism, showed that the annual average number of patients who received treatment services in twenty private hospitals for the years (2008-2017) amounted to 52 thousand patients, excluding the years (2012-2014), which witnessed a "boom" due to the admission of thousands of patients The wounded were from Libya to Jordan.

Hindawi believes that the high prices of some medical services - which providers do not adhere to the prices of the Ministry of Health and the Union of Physicians - contributed to push patients to seek other markets for treatment such as India and Turkey.

In the same context, the tourism expert emphasizes the importance of focusing the relevant authorities on increasing the income from medical tourism and not on the number of patients through the marketing of spa resorts as a complement to the therapeutic service.

He called on Hindawi to target new and unconventional markets such as European countries and America through competition with the highest levels of quality and efficiency of treatment service, and transparency in medical bills.

Khreis criticized the focus of the Ministry of Health efforts on patients after entering the country (Al Jazeera)

Procedures
"The government has taken many measures to simplify the procedures for obtaining visa for certain nationalities, adopting the law of legal responsibility, opening new markets and increasing the number of patients coming for treatment and recovery," Suleiman al-Amarin, director of the therapeutic health directorate at the ministry, said. These measures resulted in a 10% increase in the number of arrivals for treatment since the beginning of this year compared to the same period last year.

He adds that a strategy has been prepared for the first time by a decision of the Prime Minister, which includes all concerned parties, including the Ministry of Health and the Tourism Promotion Authority. To activate and increase the number of visitors coming to the Kingdom for treatment.

Observers believe that the uncertainty and dispersion of medical tourism between the ministries of health and tourism and the private sector will prevent reaching radical solutions to his obstacles, in support of describing Razzaz when he said that it "has no father."