Essay On Medical Tourism

Introduction

Many Canadians are now choosing international private health care and paying out of their own pocket for medical procedures as an option rather than waiting; this is also known as “medical tourism”. Medical tourism “ involves patients intentionally leaving their country of residence to access non-emergency medical interventions abroad, outside arranged care (Synder et al., 2011, p.139)”. Medial tourism raises many ethical concerns for various stakeholders (e.g. hospitals, physicians/surgeons, facilitators and patients) involved. In this paper, I will argue that the most pressing ethical issues on this practice are the quality of care, healthcare equity and treating health care as a commodity.

Ethical Issues

a. Quality of Care (safety and risks)

Quality of care is important for both the patient and medical tourism industry’s reputation because excellent care leads to a positive reputation for the facilities. This ethical issue is one of the most important because of the following reasons.

First of all, there is limited data on the quality and safety of adverse problems and risks of medical tourism procedures (Lunt et al, 2011). There are many risks involved in medical tourism. The lack of information about risks and complications on websites is a huge concern (Melendez, M. M., & Alizadeh, K., 2011) because it affects the patient’s medical competence especially if they are not educated on how important these complications are to understand. This can lead to exploitation of patients because there may be false data that lure vulnerable patients into certain facilities. Duties to ensure safety and disclose risks may depend on certain countries laws because some countries may not have the same standards or laws as Cana...

... middle of paper ...

...ccompensation funds when fail to receive services, informed consent forms on privacy and confidentiality of patient information, Insurance for negligent care and harmed in treatment

Conflicts between stakeholders

In addressing these ethical issues, there are a number of issues between the stakeholders that can be resolved.

Conclusion

The quality of care, healthcare equity and healthcare as a profit are a few of the most important ethical issues in medical tourism. Although there are many unethical reasons why we shouldn’t pursue medical tourism. The policy recommendations mentioned would help improve the industry. “The challenge remains for a range of multidisciplinary scholars to come together in order to engage in these issues of power, place, equity, human rights and ownership in order to allow the voices of not one, but many, to be heard (Smith, K, 2012, p.8)”.