According to some reports up to 15,000 Australians jet off for cosmetic surgery to the Land of Smiles. For the world’s most popular cosmetic surgery procedure, the breast implant prices Thailand’s clinics offer is too tempting to turn down. And with the chance to enjoy a holiday at the same time, it’s little wonder that so many are turning to medical tourism to achieve the body they want. However, while medical tourism providers emphasise the positive outcomes, media headlines scream horror stories about botched surgeries, which begs the question, just how safe is Thailand for breast implant surgery?
The answer lies somewhere in between. In part, the discordant headlines are a reflection of the Old Guard kicking against the New—change is not always welcome in Society. Medical tourism is the young upstart offering a new way of doing things that jars with the regimented, comfortable way that medical care has evolved domestically. The Old Guard is highly regulated, whereas the New pioneers are, to a large extent, free of those shackles. While this opens up new opportunities, it does mean a lack of regulation could be cause for concern. Let’s take a look at some of them:
1: Low Prices Means Low Quality
Lower prices are the most important factor for medical tourists. “You get what you pay for” is a common quote from the neighsayers, but this doesn’t take into account that Western countries have huge insurance and administration costs. Plus, wages, rents, goods and services cost substantially more than in Thailand and so Western surgeons charge a lot more. Thus, the breast implant prices Thailand clinics like KTOP offer is nothing to do with inferior quality and everything to do with the lower cost of living.
2: Thailand is a Third-World Country
The term is loosely applied to underdeveloped nations with widespread poverty. However, Thailand is far from being underdeveloped. Bangkok is one of the economic powerhouses in Asia and one look at the state-of-the-art healthcare facilities available to medical tourists will demonstrate just how advanced Thailand is. The Yanhee Hospital Health & Beauty is one of the most respected centres of excellence in the region, welcoming patients from more than 162 countries to its ultra-modern Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited facility in Bangkok. The standards here are easily equivalent to anything in Australia or New Zealand.
3: You’re Likely to get Botched Surgery in Thailand
This is another common assumption from anyone that hasn’t seen Thailand’s medical tourism facilities. Internationally-accredited facilities do not waste vast sums of money on providing contemporary, ultra-modern surroundings and then filling them with staff who are not up to the job.
Medicine is a highly respected profession in Thailand; the training takes years (as it does in the West) and only the most gifted students are admitted to medical school. Medical graduates are the cream of the crop and most continue with ongoing medical education throughout the rest of their careers, ensuring they are trained in new techniques and that their knowledge is up-to-date. At the Asia Cosmetic Hospital, their doctors have strings of qualifications after their names, as well as professional memberships of international organizations, such as the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS).
4: Patients are Susceptible to Exotic Superbugs
A superbug is a strain of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics. MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) is the superbug that has made headlines across the world, infecting thousands of people that have contracted it in hospitals in Australia, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom. It is not an “exotic” bug that is only found in Thai Hospitals, ready to infect unsuspecting foreigners. The truth is that hospital infection controls are paramount in containing this infection, and in Thailand’s hospitals infection protocols seem to be followed a lot more rigorously than hospitals elsewhere.
In Conclusion
To conclude, in these days of the information superhighway, there is a lot of misinformation about. Thailand is certainly a safe destination for medical tourists, but don’t be dazzled by those low-cost breast information prices Thailand is famed for without doing some proper research.
