Medical tourism grows in Sadc region

RIVERSIDE Hospital, a multi-purpose private health facility in Francistown in Botswana, is overwhelmed by inquiries from Zimbabweans seeking specialist health services as medical tourism spreads across the region.

When Riverside Hospital was founded as a family business in the 1990s, it operated as a general facility for chronic disease management and wellness health before it developed into a specialist facility in 2007.

It has grown into a 53-bed private healthcare facility offering a range of specialist services which include orthopaedic surgery, neurosurgery, haemodialysis, and general surgery among others.

The hospital’s operations manager Ms Faith Ketshogile said Zimbabweans were inquiring mostly about neurosurgery, orthopaedic and radio oncology services.

Riverside Hospital was one of the health institutions that exhibited at the recent Association of Health Funders of Zimbabwe’s 10th annual conference in Victoria Falls as part of its efforts to penetrate the Sadc region.

“Recently we have seen an increasing trend of patients coming from Zimbabwe, particularly through medical tourism accessing our healthcare dialysis services for which we provide packages,” said Ms Ketshogile.

“Now we are looking at transporting patients from Zimbabwe. What we have noticed is that neurosurgery and orthopaedic procedures are the areas where we get a lot of inquiries, and additionally, we are hoping to have more clients coming for radio oncology.”

Ms Ketshogile said there are also patients travelling from other countries including Zimbabwe for blood transfusion services and specialised procedures due to their competitive pricing model.

By virtue of its strategic location in Francistown, the hospital is accessible to Zimbabweans.

Riverside Hospital employs close to 300 employees and plans on opening a cancer centre next year targeting the Sadc market.

“It is our hope that we will continue to grow from strength to strength and be accessible to the Zimbabwe market technically because we are strategically located in Sadc. With cancer on the increase globally, radio oncology is becoming in demand and we are officially opening our cancer centre in Francistown in May 2024,” said Ms Ketshogile.

“We hope that we will be able to put a footprint in the Sadc region. With regards to other specialised services, we are open to strategic partnerships locally and internationally as it is our hope that there will be continued growth because of medical tourism.”

Ms Ketshogile said attending the AHFoZ conference created an opportunity for them to interact with several partners in the industry.

“We made strategic networks that add value to service provision for healthcare providers and the Zimbabwe population at large. With Riverside, we are going to penetrate the international market, and this will benefit the two countries in trying to provide universal access to health,” she said.

Scores of Zimbabweans are referred to countries such as India for specialist services hence the existence of similar services closer to home will help reduce health costs for citizens..

Botswana Public Officers Medical Aids Scheme’s chief executive and principal officer, Mr Thula Molebatse, said while Zimbabwe has some unique problems affecting healthcare delivery, the medical industry in the region has common challenges that need unity of purpose to address them.

“We effectively came here for the first time to see problems that we believe are common in Sadc like escalating cost of care, out-of-pocket payment, and inadequate access to care. We also wanted to see how sister organisations in the region are dealing with such issues,” he said.

Botswana Public Officers Medical Aids Scheme is the neighbouring country’s largest medical aid scheme covering mostly public service workers and Government workers.

Mr Molebatse said fraud, waste and abuse have been the biggest challenges in Botswana. He said efforts are being made in partnership with private-sector players to fight the scourge, over servicing, and abuse of medical schemes.–@ncubeleon