Australian Medical Association warns NIB turning healthcare into a commodity with medical tourism business

MEDICAL and security concerns have been raised about the new medical tourism business run by health fund NIB offering offshore plastic surgery packages.

Medical tourism ... NIB is offering patients a 12-month guarantee on foreign surgery.

MEDICAL and security concerns have been raised about the new medical tourism business run by health fund NIB offering offshore plastic surgery packages.

The health fund announced this week it was offering patients a 12-month guarantee on foreign surgery if they used overseas hospitals and doctors it had vetted.

The business is a threat to high charging Australian doctors and the Australian Medical Association has warned it is turning health care into a commodity.

AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton has warned even if the medical care is vetted and guaranteed increasing numbers of people who travel overseas are returning home with multi- drug resistant bacteria in their bowel that could pose a threat if the patient has complications following surgery.

“When you travel overseas and eat lettuce or a salad you could return home with a multi-drug resistant bug in your bowel,” says AMA president Dr Steve Hambleton.

“That could start to hurt you if you have complications from surgery and end up in intensive care and we might not be able to treat the infection,” he said.

NIB is organising cosmetic and dental surgery packages combined with luxury accommodation in Thailand under the new business that is not restricted to its health fund members and does not involve health insurance.

This is despite the fact the Department of Foreign Affairs has issued a travel warning for Thailand and is urging travellers to “exercise a high degree of caution”.

It has warned Australians not to travel to the country’s southern provinces and says the situation in Bangkok is “volatile” due to civil unrest in surrounding elections “particularly” in Bangkok.

NIB says it uses a leading international security firm to make assessments and recommendations on security.

“nib Options will not send customers to a location, which on the advice of our security firm, is not deemed safe,” a spokesman said.

The medical tourism business has received more than 350 customer inquiries through its call centre and website since it was launched on Tuesday.

More than 3000 people visited the nib Options website in the first three days of its operation and nib has had to put on additional call centre capacity.

Half the queries have been about cheap overseas dental care and 80 per cent of all people were interested in overseas cosmetic or overseas dental care, a spokesman said.

Breast procedures are the most common cosmetic surgery inquiry with “mummy makeovers” — combined tummy tucks and boob jobs — also being very popular.

University of Technology Sydney researcher Dr Meredith Jones’ research has found around 15,000 Australians a year travel overseas for cosmetic surgery and says we’re spending about $300 million a year on the service.

NIB has attempted to grow that market by trying to address consumer concerns about dodgy doctors and unsafe hospitals and is offering a 12-month guarantee on the surgery assuring patients they will deal with any complications that arise.

However, patients must ensure they don’t contribute to any complications by swimming or ignoring doctors advice if they want to take advantage of the guarantee.

NIB won’t name the foreign hospitals or doctors it is using because other medical tourism outlets could take advantage of the information.

The fund says its team of international plastic surgeons are registered specialists in their country of residence and have a minimum of 12 years medical and surgical education and five years specialist postgraduate training as plastic surgeons.

Some of the doctors have been trained in Australia or the United States, the fund said.

They are all certified by the Thai Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons and are licenced under the Medical Council of Thailand.

The hospitals have been visited by NIB and checked by its medical advisory committee and certified by the Joint Commission International.
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