Mahendradhata, Y. (2019). Proceed with caution: Potential challenges and risks of developing healthcare tourism in Indonesia. Global public health, 14(3), 340-350.
This study highlighted the effort of Indonesia as one of the countries that is preparing to take part in the growth of the healthcare tourism industry. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the ministry of tourism and the ministry of health for the development of international health tourism at the National Tourism Coordination Meeting held 26th to 27th September 2017 (Jakarta Post, 2017).
The Ministry of Health will be responsible for shaping and disseminating health tourism policies and encouraging the private sector to improve the quality of traditional hospitals and health facilities (Jakarta Post, 2017). The next step for the ministry of health and tourism is to form a joint task force with representatives from hospitals, spas, and other health associations.
This is not Indonesia’s first attempt to become a health tourism destination. However, Indonesia needs to do more than just develop world-class hospitals in a major tourist destination to provide a thriving healthcare tourism industry that can attract the attention of overseas patients. In addition, the amount of various resources needs to be considered to ensure the success of the health tourism industry. The vision of attracting foreign patients also raises questions about the potential diversion of resource allocation, given that Indonesia still has a long list of public health issues to be addressed.
In addition, there is also the potential to intensify migration
of health care professionals from the public to the private sector or from rural to urban areas.This study shows that policymakers in Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia with limited resources need to consider many things related to the development of the health tourism industry. All forms of consideration need to have an ethical obligation to provide evidence of data on potential positive and negative impacts before moving forward in developing the healthcare tourism industry.