Dr Conville Brown, who is one of those pushing to expand medical tourism in The Bahamas, says that Bahamians are some of the biggest “reverse medical tourists”.
Brown seems to think that the country’s close proximity to the United States puts The Bahamas in a good position to capture a bigger share of the growing medical tourism industry.
But he also admits that Bahamians travel frequently to the United States to have medical procedures performed, although he is loathe to admit that they do so mainly because they lack confidence in Bahamian medical facilities.
Brown says Bahamians pump, possibly, hundreds of millions of dollars into the coffers of South Florida hospitals, although he offes no statistics to back up that claim. Experts say it is more like tens of millions.
Experts also say that The Bahamas will have a hard time attracting medical tourists because of the high cost of labour in The Bahamas. Sloppy work habits and a reputation for bad service won’t help the situation.
Brown is the founder, president and CEO of The Bahamas Heart and Chest Centre. He has been criticized for bringing in, or wanting to bring in, qualified oncologists from the United States.
Therein lies another problem with medical tourism in The Bahamas. In order to sustain a vibrant industry, it would require hiring professionals from outside The Bahamas. Bahamians, of course, are famous for ther disdain of foreigners and it is unlikely that foreigners could be brought in, without lots of noise from the locals.
Experts think that medical tourism in The Bahamas is just another pie-in-the-sky tourism venture, like Chinese tourism, religious tourism, African-Amercian tourism and other ill-planned and failed adventures sponsored by a desperate Ministry of Tourism.
Rather than focusing on fixing the problems inherent in the existing tourism product (like high prices and lousy service) Bahamians want to waste precious resources chasing elusive new channels of tourism, with little chance of a pay off.
