Hotel with clinics to be set up for medical tourists

By Chung Hyun-chae

A “medical tourism hotel with clinics” will be built in Yongsan, central Seoul, as early as 2017 according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG), Friday.

It is aimed at attracting more medical tourists to Seoul by offering better facilities for them.

The city government approved a development plan to build what essentially will be a 34-story “luxury hospital” where each patient will have individual hotel style accommodation.

The facility will cover eight medical areas including plastic surgery, and will also offer free medical checks for the elderly.

About half of the building will house 390 hotel rooms, which will have their own kitchens.

“We expect the facility to attract a great number of medical tourists. We believe it will boost tourism in Yongsan as well as the entire city and the country,” an official said.

Establishing such facilities became possible following a revision to the Medical Law in June last year, which allows medical corporations to invest in them.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of medical tourists keeps growing, from 159,000 in 2012 to 212,000 in 2013 and 265,000 last year. The combined number of such tourists recently surpassed 1 million since 2009 when the nation permitted hospitals to attract foreign patients.

In 2009, people from 141 countries were treated here, but last year patients were from 191 countries. The majority of patients were Chinese, followed by Americans, Russian and Japanese.