Questionnaire on Medical Tourism in Thailand: Middle Eastern Patients

This assignment presents a questionnaire designed to gather data on the experiences of Middle Eastern medical tourists visiting private hospitals in Thailand. The questionnaire explores factors such as the perceived quality of medical services compared to other countries, the value of medical costs relative to services provided, the primary motivations for choosing Thailand for medical treatment (cost, treatment quality, associated facilities), and overall satisfaction with the Thai healthcare sector. The document also includes an overview of medical tourism, defining it as a combination of products and services offered to international patients seeking cost-effective and specialized medical care. The overview highlights the growing popularity of medical tourism due to factors like high healthcare costs in developed countries and the desire for better and more affordable treatment options abroad. References to relevant academic literature are provided to support the discussion and contextualize the research within the broader field of medical tourism studies.

MIDDLE EASTERN MEDICAL TOURISTS WHOM VISIT
THE PRIVATE HOSPITALS IN THAILAND

Questionnaire
Q1. Do you agree that medical services in Thailand are much better as compared to other
countries?
 Highly agree
 Agree
 Highly disagree
 Disagree
 Neutral
Q2. Do you think that medical cost is worth as per the services provided by the specific
countries?
 Yes
 No
 Do not know
Q3. Which of the following is the most important factor that drives you to visit Thailand for
medical services?
 Cost
 Proper treatment by the medical practitioners
 Association of other facilities
Q4. Do you agree that service quality of Thailand health care sector is much better as compared
to other countries?
 Highly agree
 Agree
 Highly disagree
 Disagree
 Neutral
Q5. How much you prefer to visit different countries for medical tourism?
 Highly preferable

 Sometimes
 Never
Overview of the topic
It has been observed that people from rich countries have started travelling to less
developed countries for inexpensive but high quality medical care (Permwonguswa and et.al.,
2016). It has also been found out that for better health care, patients from developed countries
travel to developing countries for saving cost and as a result, it aids them to get proper treatment
from the respective entities. Medical tourism is regarded as the combination of products and
services offered to the people travelling from one country to new country. It is also called as a
cost effective form of medical care for patients that mostly come from developed countries who
need specialized form of treatment. Several authors also illustrated that medical tourism is a
combination of products and services that are intended to encourage patients in preserving and
maintaining their health through a combination of vacationing and other form of recreational
activities in a different location other than home (Moghavvemi and et.al., 2017).
On the contrary, Fetscherin and Stephano, (2016), contended that medical tourism is a
type of movement of a patient to get services which further assists in recovering from illness.
The main aim of availing medical tourism is to get the medical services from abroad which are
not available in the home country. This helps the patients not only to acquire better health care
services; but also it leads to attain lower cost services. Hence, it can be said that medical tourism
is the practice of patients that seeks lower cost health care procedures in abroad often packaged
with travel and sightseeing excursions. Further, medical tourism is also getting popular because
this helps people to identify new sources of improvements in health care sector. The wellbeing
tourism market requires the activity that maintains the state of wellness physically, mentally and
socially. However, apart from this there are several factors that influence medical tourism and
cost is one such important force. An estimated of around 46 million people in USA are uninsured
and are incapable of bearing the ever rising medical costs for themselves (Skountridaki, 2017). In
this respect, it has also been ascertained that government is unable to provide healthcare for its
residents; therefore people from USA are looking forward for different alternatives.

References
Fetscherin, M. and Stephano, R. M., 2016. The medical tourism index: Scale development and
validation. Tourism Management. 52. pp.539-556.
Moghavvemi, S. and et.al., 2017. Connecting with prospective medical tourists online: A cross-
sectional analysis of private hospital websites promoting medical tourism in India,
Malaysia and Thailand. Tourism Management. 58. pp.154-163.
Permwonguswa, S and et.al., 2016. DEVELOPMENT OF A DOCTOR RATING CRITERIA
FOR A MEDICAL TOURISM PORTAL. DEVELOPMENT.
Skountridaki, L., 2017. Barriers to business relations between medical tourism facilitators and
medical professionals. Tourism Management. 59. pp.254-266.