GEORGIA: Georgia struggles to become a medical tourism destination

Private clinics and hospitals in Georgia are trying to break into the international medical tourism market by offering inexpensive procedures and taking advantage of lenient legislation, but the government has no interest in helping them.

Healthcare Agency International (HIA) in Tbilisi has been bringing patients to Georgia - and sending Georgians abroad for treatment - for the past three years. The company says that Georgia is an attractive medical treatment destination for infertility treatment and surrogate mother selection. This is because Georgia permits procedures that are banned in Europe and elsewhere, including surrogacy egg donation. HIA offers customers a database of surrogate mothers with photographs - a practice that has largely been discontinued in other countries due to privacy issues. HIA also offers background information and details about the women egg donors. The agency charges $20,000 for the entire surrogate package, including the fee for the mother, medicines and delivery, a fraction of the cost for the entire procedure in the United States. International patients account for 50 to 60 % of the clinic’s total business, and it is anticipated that the percentage and total numbers will grow.

Georgia is also offering international patients hair transplants and dentistry. Existing problems include the lack of direct flights and absence of international accreditation of clinics or hospitals. Few hospital and clinic websites are in English or other non-Georgian languages.

Another problem is the government’s total lack of interest promoting Georgia as a medical treatment destination. Less than 1 percent of the 1.3 million visitors to Georgia in 2007 came for medical or spa treatments, according to the latest figures available from the Department of Tourism and Resorts. The government is doing nothing to promote or develop the field either domestically or internationally. The Ministry of Health argues that medical tourism is the sole responsibility of the Department of Tourism and Resorts in the Ministry of Economic Development; and in turn that department says it the government is looking into the country’s potential for medical tourism, and its priority is to recapture the country’s Soviet-era legacy as a regional spa destination. There are 100 spa resorts in Georgia. Local travel agencies argue that the authorities are not marketing the country and relying on a historic spa reputation to get visitors is not enough.