Colombia, the perfect destination for medical tourism
Colombia has become one of the main destinations for medical tourism in America, and the most frequently chosen for plastic surgery. Would you like to know why?
High-quality clinics and hospitals
Colombia’s medical offer is really wide. Bogota, Medellin, Cali, Barranquilla y Bucaramanga are the cities par excellence where you can receive medical services in the country. Actually, a lot of foreigners go there in order to have medical attention in specialties such as Cardiology, Ophthalmology, transplants, orthopedic rehabilitation, fertility, plastic surgery and physiotherapy.
Recently, 3 Colombian medical institutions have obtained the Joint Comission International Accreditation for Hospitals: The Colombian Cardiovascular Foundation – Heart Institute in Bucaramanga, the University Hospital Santa Fe Foundation in Bogota, and the Cardio-infantile Foundation. There are 16 Colombian hospitals which are considered in the 45 best ones in Latin America, and Colombia is a pioneer in the region when talking about the creation of national systems for health accreditation.
High-skilled healthcare professionals
Thank to the high level of education in Colombian universities, the several opportunities for medical practice in the country, the international renowned professors and the permanent focus on achieving goals, our healthcare professionals have become a reference worldwide. The academic training of Colombian medicians is consolidated by offering postgraduate programs, exchanges, and fellows in other nations, in order to update and strengthen their knowledge.
National health and scientific research is remarkable in Latin American context. Moreover, innumerable academic events, congresses, seminars and Medicine refresher courses happen each year, which shows the constant commitment of Colombia with giving high-standard international medical services.
Excellent connectivity
More than 600 weekly flights connect Colombia with North, Central and South America, and Europe. In fact, 30% of this flights arrive directly to other cities apart from Bogota. Furthermore, Colombia is just 3 hours far away from Miami by airplane and less than 6 hours far from New York, Washington, Houston, Sao Paulo, Mexico and Buenos Aires.
49% of the foreigners who visit Colombia for medical issues come from Netherlands —including their islands in The Antilles—, people from USA rank in the second place, and patients from Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama and Peru rank third. Moreover, Colombia Migration has finished a study which shows that the number of tourists that come to our country for medical reasons has multiplied in 50% in the last 8 years.
Colombia Migration and the Ministry of Commerce point that medical tourism delivers 144 million dollars to Colombia each year. In 2032, the government expects to receive 2.8 million medical visitors, and to obtain a revenue of 6,000 million dollars. In order to achieve that scenario, apart from establishing easing measures for visas and travelling permissions, Colombia works in free zones of health services where medical centers can import technology with low taxes.
Nowadays, Colombia is part of the top nations with the highest demand on medical tourism just as Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil and USA.
