Medical Tourism Risks

Medical tourism carries some risks that local medical procedures do not. Should complications arise, patients might not be covered by insurance or able to seek compensation via malpractice lawsuits. However new insurance products are available that do protect the patient should a medical malpractice occur overseas.

Some countries currently sought after as medical tourism destinations provide some form of legal remedies for medical malpractice. However, this legal avenue is unappealing to the medical tourist. Advocates of medical tourism advise prospective tourists to evaluate the unlikely legal challenges against the benefits of such a trip before undergoing any surgery abroad. Patients should also be aware that the quality of post-operative care can also vary dramatically, depending on the hospital and country, and may be different from US or Western standards.

Some countries, such as India, Malaysia, Costa Rica, or Thailand have different infectious diseases than Europe and North America, and different prevalences of the same diseases compared to nations such as the U.S., Canada, and the UK. Exposure to disease without having built up natural immunity can be a hazard for weakened individuals, specifically for gastrointestinal diseases (e.g Hepatitis A, amoebic dysentery, paratyphoid) which could weaken progress, mosquito-transmitted diseases, influenza, and tuberculosis (e.g., 75% of South Africans have latent TB). International hospital accreditation with Trent or JCI, mentioned earlier, may be of value here when people are trying to choose a destination for their procedure.

Also, travel soon after surgery can increase the risk of complications, as can vacation activities. For example, scars will be darker and more noticeable if they sunburn while healing. Long flights can be bad for those with heart (thrombosis) or breathing-related problems. To avoid these problems medical tourism patients often combine their medical trips with vacation time set aside for rest and recovery in the destination country.

However, because in poor tropical nations diseases run the gamut, doctors seem to be more open to the possibility of any infectious disease, including HIV, TB, and typhoid, there are cases in the West where patients were consistently misdiagnosed for years because such diseases are perceived to be "rare" in the West.

For hospitals and doctors seeking to provide medical tourism services, there is the risk of being sued by a disgruntled patient, so medical indemnity services such as those provided by the Medical Protection Society are essential.