Proceed with caution: Potential challenges and risks of developing healthcare tourism in Indonesia

Abstract

The Indonesian government is set to take part in the region's growing healthcare tourism industry. However, Indonesia would need to do much more than just develop world-class hospitals at major tourist destinations to provide a thriving healthcare tourism industry that could attract patients from abroad. Moreover, the amount of resources needed to ensure the success of a healthcare tourism industry attracting foreign patients also raises the question of potential resource allocation diversion, as the country still has a long list of public health issues to address. There is also the potential of intensifying the migration of healthcare professionals from the public to the private sector or from rural to urban areas. Policymakers in Indonesia, and other resource-constrained countries, contemplating the development of healthcare tourism have an ethical obligation to weigh the evidence on potential positive and negative impacts before moving forward.

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