Local Healthcare Providers Woo More Medical Tourists

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Mr Alexey Laptev is here for cancer treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital while his girlfriend Ekaterina Guseva is here to accompany him

LOCAL HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS WOO MORE MEDICAL TOURISTS

From Russia with love of S'pore's medical facilities

Cancer man picks S'pore over the US, China, Korea

By Ng Wan Ching

January 30, 2008


THE day he received news that he had cancer was the day Mr Alexey Laptev knew he had to get out of his country.

At least for the duration of his treatment.

The question was where?

Mr Laptev, 25, considered his choices - the US, Korea, China and Singapore. He chose Singapore.

He is among an increasing number of patients from Russia who are making their way here for medical treatment.

A big part of the reason is the efforts by healthcare providers, such as Parkway Health, to make Singapore medicine known to the Russian market.

The number of Russian patients from Vladivostok and the Primorsky region coming to Parkway Health for medical treatment and executive health screenings has gone up by 105 per cent from 2006 to 2007.

The private healthcare group is now seeing about 80 such patients a month.

Said Mr Gene Lee, marketing manager for Parkway Health and part of the team in charge of Parkway's push into Eastern Europe: 'We started marketing the Russian market only last year, by doing advertising and promotion in travel magazines and certain medical publications.

Mr Laptev, from Vladivostok, Russia's largest port city, had heard of Singapore from his doctor and other patients.

He said: 'In my country, in order to see a specialist, you have to queue and queue. Whether you have money or not, you still have to queue. And then, we are not sure if we can see a doctor after all that waiting.'

He spoke in Russian and Mr James Tan, marketing manager for Parkway Health, a fluent Russian speaker, translated.

The 25-year-old businessman had been 'confused' and 'disappointed' when he was told he had rectal cancer.

Said Mr Laptev: 'In my country, patients lose hope. I saw a lady who got worse and worse. There is a lack of proper equipment, they are always giving wrong diagnosis. By the time, they get round to curing the patient, it is too late.'

He chose to come to Singapore because of the 'price and quality'.

His first impression when he saw Mount Elizabeth Hospital, where he is being treated, was that it was clean and modern.

He said: 'The doctors are always smiling, the equipment is up-to-date. I feel better about my chances here.'

He spoke of his encounter with another Russian patient here who has the same medical condition as him.

'He went to Korea and China and all the doctors there rejected him. They all told him he could not be cured.

'Then he came to Singapore. The doctors here treated him. He is healthy now,' said Mr Laptev.

Mr Laptev is being treated by three doctors here, an oncologist, a radiation oncologist and a surgeon.

He has been here since 3 Jan, undergoing radiation therapy five days a week and chemotherapy once a week.

He will be here until 29 Feb.

The treatment is to try and shrink his tumour as much as possible before his surgery.

He will have to return to Vladivostok after his two-month treatment and rest for a month.

He will return to Singapore in April for his surgery.

The estimated cost of his entire treatment is about $35,000. He is paying for it himself.

Here with him is his girlfriend Ms Ekaterina Guseva, 22.

She left her job, as a manager in a small company, to be with him in Singapore.

Said Ms Guseva, who speaks some English: 'He needs me now.'

The couple are staying at the New 7th Storey Hotel along Rochor Road.

They travel every day during the week by taxi to Mount Elizabeth Hospital for Mr Laptev's treatment.

Mr Laptev is taking well to the treatment so far. He has not suffered much nausea or fatigue.

So after treatment, the couple spend their time shopping and eating in the shopping malls.

Said Mr Laptev: 'The only thing I am not used to here is the food. The taste is very different from the food back home. There's much more use of herbs in cooking here.'

Dr Jason Yap, director of healthcare services at the Singapore Tourism Board, noted that Singapore has long been the healthcare destination of choice for patients in the immediate region like Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

But recently, more patients from non-traditional countries are coming here.

'We have been seeing increasing numbers in recent years of patients from farther afield, from the rest of Asean, South Asia, the Middle East, China, Russia and Ukraine, US and Canada and others,' said Dr Yap.