Medical Tourism in Turkey

Published in the International Business Times

Health

By IBT Contributor on 10/21/21 at 4:34 pm edit

Medical tourism in Turkey is one of the driving forces behind its economy as thousands of patients flood the international clinics and hospitals in Turkey every year all year round to undergo different treatments.

The various treatments that foreign patients look for in Turkey include simple non-surgical treatments to the most invasive surgical and medical treatments.

Beautiful view on Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey

Why is Medical Tourism in Turkey Popular?

Turkey has a unique geographical location, especially its most famous city Istanbul, which is only a three hours flight from most of the capitals in the world.

Istanbul has gained an irrefutable reputation in the field of medical tourism because of many factors including:

  • Advanced medical techniques and the newest technologies are used in different medical fields.
  • Well-trained and experienced doctors, nurses, physicians, and others working in the medical field.
  • Price may be one of the most effective factors when it comes to the increasing number of foreign patients who choose medical tourism in Turkey.

The cost of treatments, as well as the cost of living in Turkey, is low when compared to different European countries, the USA, or Canada (incl. Australia and the UK) 

  • Hospitals and clinics that are built and operated according to the best European standards.
  • It is easy to acquire a visa to visit Turkey for most nationalities.

What are the Fields of Medical Tourism in Turkey?

As we mentioned earlier foreign patients come to Turkey seeking many treatments, the most popular of which are:

  • Hair transplantation:

Istanbul is the first destination when it comes to hair transplantation. There are hundreds of hair transplantation clinics that provide their patients with natural results and perform this procedure using different techniques and the latest discoveries in the field.

  • Dental Treatments:

Turkey became among the most famous medical tourism destinations in the field of dental treatments because of the high quality of the materials used in the treatments on the one hand, and the affordable cost of these treatments on the other.

International dental clinics, welcomes thousands of patients every year to have dental implants, dentures, or Hollywood smile treatments among many other dental treatments that are less costly than most of the European countries.

  • Plastic Surgery:

Plastic surgery is one of the beams that hold medical tourism in Turkey. Turkey is among the top ten countries in the world in this field. Patients choose Turkey to have their plastic surgery due to the affordable pieces, high-quality services, accredited hospitals, and clinics.

Prices of treatments, hotels, and other expenses in Turkey are cheaper by 60% to 80% when compared with other different countries especially North America, Canada the UK and Australia.

Dental medical tourism in Turkey witnessed a leap in the number of foreign patients who choose Turkey as the destination for receiving dental treatments. Clinics like Dentakay welcomed thousands of dental patients during the past months who came to Turkey to have dental treatments and spend their vacations in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Istanbul.

It is worth mentioning that the number of medical tourism patients in Turkey in 2019 was 551,748 patients with 2 billion US dollars in revenues. The expected revenue of medical tourism in Turkey by 2023 is 20 billion US dollars according to some Turkish officials who anticipate an increase in the number of patients who choose Turkey as a destination for leisure, business, and medical tourism.

 

Confirmed: Australia’s international border will reopen from mid-November

These changes mean there will be no travel restrictions if you are a vaccinated Australian entering or leaving the nation’s shores.

Morrison also said the government is working towards completely quarantine-free travel for certain countries, such as New Zealand when it is safe to do so.

It will also become easier to enter Australia with the plan abolishing international arrival caps on returning vaccinated Australians.

Citizens and permanent residents fully immunised with a vaccine approved or recognised by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will be required to undergo seven days’ home quarantine.

Others will be required to enter 14 days of managed isolation.

After more than 18 months of being shuttered, PM Scott Morrison has confirmed today that Australia’s border will officially reopen to inbound and outbound international travel from mid-November in states that have hit vaccination targets.


You heard it here. It’s finally happening.

Australia’s tough outbound border restrictions will be scrapped when states and territories are expected to hit 80 per cent double-dose vaccination coverage.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday revealed the path back to international travel with the new system expected to start in November.

“There are no surprises here, this is what we set out to do,” said Morrison.

“Australia will be ready for take-off very soon.”

Restrictions on people leaving the country will be scrapped at 80 per cent coverage – expected in early November in some jurisdictions.

Current overseas travel restrictions will be removed and Australians will be able to travel subject to any other travel advice and limits, as long as they are fully vaccinated and those countries’ border settings allow.

These changes mean there will be no travel restrictions if you are a vaccinated Australian entering or leaving the nation’s shores.

Morrison also said the government is working towards completely quarantine-free travel for certain countries, such as New Zealand when it is safe to do so.

It will also become easier to enter Australia with the plan abolishing international arrival caps on returning vaccinated Australians.

Citizens and permanent residents fully immunised with a vaccine approved or recognised by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) will be required to undergo seven days’ home quarantine.

Others will be required to enter 14 days of managed isolation.

Home quarantine face recognition

People who cannot be vaccinated including those under 12 or with a medical condition will be treated as vaccinated for the purposes of their travel.

States and territories will begin this program at different times given varying vaccination rates.

Australian travellers will be able to access an internationally recognised proof of vaccination document (Vaccine passport) in the coming weeks to prove their status.

The TGA will also recognise China’s Sinovac and Covishield produced in India as authorised vaccines to enter Australia, meaning Chinese and Indian students, tourists and business travellers can return.

More than 45,000 people are stuck overseas waiting to come home with the NSW government indicating it wants to welcome thousands into the country when borders reopen.

“It’s time to give Australians their lives back,” Mr Morrison said.

More to come.

Article published by https://karryon.com.au/.

Normal World Travel?! When is it going to happen…? ✈️🚀🌎🌍🌏🏩🤷‍♀️

Well, we thought 2020 was going to be the end of this nightmare…. then 2021 began in a way we hadn’t hear before….”Unprecedented”🤦🏼‍♀️

 

When it was announced at the end of last year that we’d have not one but two highly effective vaccines against the coronavirus, people were excited, hope was restored as collectively our desire to travel hasn’t abated.

A few months later, though, the vaccine rollout has been choppy at best in the U.S., people’s expectations are coming back down to earth expecting everything to “go back to normal magically in 2021”. Most realize it will be several months before they can get vaccinated themselves. 

 

In Australia, TGA provisionally approves Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use in Australia on the 25 January 2020 : https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/30/australias-covid-vaccine-rollout-everything-you-need-to-know

With it being approved and rolled out now in the US, UK, Australia and most countries around the world, we are unfortunately seeing new strains of the virus that are more contagious and potentially more deadly popping up around the world and within the U.S.

A lot of the enthusiasm we first saw in the travel industry as well as the medical tourism industry at the beginning of the year for plans for this year is beginning to fade a bit. People are taking a step back and evaluating when they realistically can get back out into the world. 

 

What needs to happen before we can travel with some normalcy?

It’s apparently not going to be ‘just that simple’ to get back to normal, everyday life?! There are certain factors in the equation when it comes to travel and it’s essential that the combination of vaccines administered will contribute to achieving a level of immunity around the world so that the virus can no longer spread as rapidly — or lethally. 

And there is promising news on that front. 

And there is promising news on that front. Using the US as somewhat of a test-case, the first 22 millionAmericans have been vaccinated for COVID-19, and the CDC says the initial safety data shows everything is going well. The CDC reported this week that its early data on the first 22 million or so Americans who have received at least one dose of a vaccine shows they are indeed as safe as they were expected to be. 

And data from Israel, the world leader in terms of the vaccination effort, has found that infection rates have dropped significantly after just the first dose of the vaccine, according to reporting from the New York Times

On Friday morning, Johnson & Johnson shared that its vaccine is effective in protecting against COVID-19, though it reported a drop in its effectiveness against the new strain of the virus circulating in South Africa. 

Still, this vaccine only requires one shot instead of two and can be stored for months in a typical refrigerator, promising news for developing nations who perhaps don’t have the infrastructure in place to support the extra care required to store the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. 

If this new vaccine receives approval and we can get it distributed to a lot of people quickly, we can start to get ahead of the virus and hopefully blunt its circulation among the population before the more contagious strains become dominant. 

 

What does this all mean for travel? 

 

 

For countries that have taken an aggressive stance and very restrictive non-travel measurements against covid- vaccination is going to be a requirement for international travel we predict. Countries that have taken very strict and aggressive measures to successfully protected themselves from against COVID-19, such as Australia, New Zealand and several nations in Asia. 

Read more about the state of travel right now: 

 

Sooooo international travel returning to normal for 2021? Unfortunately for Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Asia it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

 

In the US it looks like domestically they will see a pretty busy summer for travel, and and some of their closest allies like North and South America, possibly the UK and other nations in Europe, could open their borders to Americans this summer (with restrictions, of course) if we continue to see case and death numbers go down and increase our rate of vaccination. 

But we are predicting the real boom — and perhaps a return to normalcy even — will happen in the summer of 2022 (winter here in Australia) after a much larger portion of the global population has been inoculated against COVID-19.