Singapore is one of Asia’s leaders in advanced care, making it a top destination for medical tourism. Its healthcare system is one of the most successful in the world considering that prices are reasonable, service is efficient, and doctors are knowledgeable. It’s estimated that over 200,000 foreign patients each year choose Singapore for medical related issues. A large percent of Singaporean doctors have trained in the United States, which alone boosts medical tourism. Many patients also come to Singapore for alternative medical treatment. With such a large population of Chinese, the market of traditional Chinese medicine is huge. Acupuncture is a popular treatment among foreign patients.
Like most countries, Singapore has both private and public sectors in healthcare. Private institutions and hospitals offer the best efficient service, but can be quite costly. Public sectors are less expensive (usually much less), but efficiency is lacking with long waiting times. There are even polyclinics for less serious situations, but they also have extremely long waiting times. In most dire cases, waiting isn’t an option so insurance is recommended to be able to afford private care. The country has a total of 13 private hospitals, 10 public, and many specialist clinics and polyclinics.
It’s also amazing at how organized Singapore’s system is. You can easily find out how much each and every procedure costs in both sectors by checking out the Ministry of Health’s website. For polyclinic costs, you can check the Polyclinics Singhealth website. Unfortunately, no medical service is offered for free, and Singapore is significantly more expensive than neighboring medical competitors, Thailand and India, but the quality and cleanliness is superb.
In conclusion, Singapore should be your top destination for medical purposes, and shouldn’t be much of a worry if you are only traveling through the country. In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked Singapore the sixth best health system in the world. As mentioned, it is best to purchase travel insurance because you never know what can happen especially in foreign lands. It’s better to have insurance and not use it then to not have it and risk your life at a public hospital or your bank account at a private hospital!
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