The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIANS pump millions of dollars each year into the South Florida's medical tourism sector, a leading doctor telling Tribune Business yesterday that this nation provides the largest international client base for several hospitals in the area. Dr Conville Brown said the Bahamas stands to benefit from its proximity to the US when it comes to growing medical tourism, although it was ironic that Bahamians tended to be what he referred to guardedly as some of the biggest "reverse medical tourists". Dr Brown said: "Medical tourism will be a benefit because of our proximity to the United States, even though Bahamians tend to be some of the biggest reverse medical tourists. I use the term guardedly because a medical tourist travels specifically for health care, and who does that more than Bahamians? "We travel to South Florida and we deposit millions and millions of dollars into the South Florida economy each year. The insurance companies do likewise, paying for millions and millions of dollars of services in the South Florida economy and elsewhere in the US for a number of services that can, quite frankly, be done in the Bahamas - although not all of them but quite a few of them." Dr Brown added: "We live off tourism for the most part, where people come to us and boost our economy, but then from a health care prospective we sort of reciprocate that, hop on a plane and fly to the US and we boost their economy big time. We are reverse medical tourists. Meanwhile, we are trying to establish medical tourism." Dr Brown said it was difficult to say how much is being spent outside the country by Bahamians on health care. "That number is a very evasive number," he added. "If you ask the insurance companies how much money they spend on health care abroad you probably would not get a very straight answer, but I would say it's easily in the tens of millions, and people estimate numbers more like in the hundreds of millions. "Until you have some reporting by the key financial institutions that give an idea of how much funds we do export out of the country as regards health care, it will always be a guess by many individuals. I think it's important to know whether it's tens of million versus hundreds of millions." Dr Brown added: "I know we have several hospitals in South Florida that I am aware of that say their biggest international clientele is the Bahamas. That's a heavy a statement to be made by South Florida hospitals, where easily six name us as their top international clientele. We spend a boat load of money over there." Dr Brown said medical tourism could have a multiplier effect within the Bahamian economy. "If you were to do medical tourism here in the Bahamas there is a major multiplying effect," he added. "The same thing that all tourists do, the medical tourist has to do. The biggest multiplying effect is how much money is left in the country, and that is dependent on how your medical tourism facility is structured. If it is structured so that the ownership is Bahamian, then the Bahamian economy really wins because those funds will stay in the Bahamas. If it is foreign owned then we will really just get the scraps."