Determinants of the Competitiveness of the South African Medical

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the current status of the South African medical tourism industry in relation to international standards and to evaluate the factors required for South Africa to be competitive in the global medical tourism industry. The study attempted to assess these issues by engaging the key and relevant stakeholders in the industry. This entailed ascertaining the perceptions of medical tourism tour operators, South African private hospitals and their affiliates, as well as government in the form of the Department of Tourism and the Department of Health. Personal interviews were conducted and analysed qualitatively. The study is limited to only the surgical component of the medical tourism industry. Thus the contribution of spas and other non‐surgical aspects of medical tourism are not taken into account. Additionally, this work does not consider the “accidental” medical tourist. The study deals with medical tourists who travel to a country specifically for a surgical procedure. The findings identified that tour operators provide a value‐added service through the integration of hospitals, hotels and tourism. Additionally, the quality of services in the South African medical tourism industry was discovered to be equivalent to international standards. The growth of medical tourism was identified as being beneficial to the public sector. Additionally, private hospital infrastructure and capacity was found to be able to cater for such growth. However, government was acknowledged as not doing enough to facilitate and support the growth of the industry. Through the analysis it can be concluded that the industry is quite fragmented, with a lack of inter‐sectoral coordination between the relevant stakeholders. Issues pertaining to the initiation of dialogue within all sectors in the value chain and the creation of a platform for industry stakeholders to collaborate in the interests of the industry need to be addressed