Health tourism unites large centers. They will present their strengths during world congress.

Four major health centers in the country joined their strengths by establishing a health tourism cluster to offer foreign and Dominican patients residing abroad their main medical services, which will allow the Dominican Republic to be positioned as the main medical tourist destination in the Caribbean .

The centers will jointly promote their strengths in cardiovascular service, bariatric surgery, orthopedics, oncology, urology, preventive checkups, joint replacements, robotic surgery, radiotherapy and neurological surgeries, among others.

The cluster is made up of the Center for Advanced Medicine and Telemedicine (Cedimat), the General Hospital of the Plaza de la Salud (HGPS), the Metropolitan Hospital of Santiago (Homs) and the National Network of Medical Services (Rescue Group) composed of centers Health in Puerto Plata, Punta Cana and La Romana and 27 offices within tourist hotels.

The joint offer as centers of excellence, covering some 900 beds, will be announced during the Medical Tourism World Congress of the Medical Tourism Association (MTA) to be held from next Sunday until Tuesday in the city of Orlando, Florida, where they will be presenting the facilities in terms of services, quality of care and patient safety they offer.

During the activity, the first Guide of Medical Tourism and Welfare of the Dominican Republic will be presented, which includes a list of services and medical centers enabled with the capacity to enter health tourism, hotels for accommodation near the centers and transportation, among others facilities, as well as with the basic questions that could be asked about it.

The details were offered by the president of the Dominican Association of Health Tourism, Alejandro Cambiaso; the director of Cedimat, Milagros Ureña; the president of the Board of Trustees of the HGPS, Julio Amado Castaños Guzmán; the president of the Homs Board of Directors, Rafael Sánchez Español; the president of the Rescue Group, José Natalio Redondo, and the president of AF Strategic Communication, Amelia Reyes Mora, during her participation in the Breakfast of LISTÍN DIARIO, headed by its director Miguel Franjul.

With this, they explained, the steps are taken to strengthen the country brand and increase the quality and safety of the medical services offered in the Dominican Republic.

The directors of the centers indicated that the ideal is that health tourism is two-way with patients who come and go.

They noted that these centers have been preparing, obtaining international certifications and being the first national institutions to initiate the international accreditation process.

They have also created their international departments that are responsible for providing all facilities to patients and have alliances with international hospitals for the second medical opinion.

They recalled that health tourism is driven by cost-effectiveness. In the United States the costs of the services are very high, and in Canada the waiting lists are very long, which favors countries like the Dominican Republic.

However, Dr. Castaños Guzmán said that one must be careful and vigilant of the promotion that is made in the country, since currently alternative treatments are not supported, which take advantage of moments of despair of the patient and are very expensive procedures, which It could hurt in terms of medical tourist destination.