Even Doctors Head to Bangkok for Eye Surgery 16/04/04
The New Paper
EVEN local doctors are now going overseas for treatment, such is the pull of certain medical centres in the region. At least five doctors so far have gone to Bangkok to get their myopia corrected.
Why go there, when there are available doctors here to do the same operation? Dr Y Chong, a 42-year-old specialist who went for his eye operation in Bangkok, said: 'It's not just the cheaper cost. I was very impressed by their top LASIK centre when I was there during a short visit,' he said, praising the Refractive Surgery Centre in Bangkok. 'I knew straightaway that if I was going to get my short-sightedness corrected, I would do it there.' LASIK is a surgery that permanently changes the cornea - shape of the clear covering of the front of the eye - using a laser beam. It reduces a person's dependency on glasses or contact lenses.
Dr Chong explained why he chose the centre in Bangkok.
Top notch service
It had the latest machine, he had noted on an earlier visit. 'The service is also top-notch. The centre is very well run by a director who has an MBA and it has an American optometrist, who has a doctorate, to test your eyes. That's very important to ensure that your eyesight is accurately corrected,' he said.
He had been contemplating going there by himself when he met Dr Toh Wai Keong and Dr Chow U-Jin from Health Aesthetics - a newly set-up medical service which provides cross-border health and aesthetic retreats for their patients. (See report at next page.)
Dr Toh and Dr Chow helped him book into the centre. He then flew to Bangkok three weeks ago and underwent the procedure. He now enjoys 6/6 vision in one eye and 6/5 in the other.
Another doctor who went to Bangkok for medical care with Health Aesthetics, a general practitioner in his 40s, said: 'The price is one factor but the results are a more important factor.' He claimed that the Bangkok centre is better than the Singapore ones. 'The Thai doctor has done over 15,000 LASIK procedures, I don't think the Singapore doctors have done as many,' he said.
He heard about Health Aesthetics from Dr Chong but had known about the Bangkok LASIK centre for a while. Both Dr Chong and the GP also liked having a holiday thrown in as part of the package and being treated like VIPs.
Said Dr Chong: 'The down time in Singapore and in Bangkok is about the same, so I might as well go to Bangkok and have a holiday as well.' Said the GP: 'In Singapore, you are treated like just another Singaporean. But in Bangkok, you are treated like a VIP. And that is not just coming from me but from quite a few other non-doctor patients as well.'
The GP just had his eye operation done today.
There are other patients as well who have used Health Aesthetics' services for cross-border medical care. Each LASIK operation took about 10 minutes, for each eye.
Total cost
The total cost, including flight and hotel accommodation, was about $3,500. In Singapore, the procedure costs between $1,900 to $2,200 per eye. If they have to fly back for corrective surgery, Health Aesthetics will fly them back for free.
For Ms Amelia Chow Kit Yee, the decision to go to Bangkok was sealed after she and her sister met with Dr Toh. Said Ms Chow, 38, an administrative executive: 'I had gone to a local centre at a public hospital and even paid for my first eye-check. But the service there just wasn't good and I felt that the doctors were so rushed that they didn't have time for us.' Then her sister found out about Health Aesthetics through the local media.
'We met Dr Toh who was very re-assuring and spent a lot of time with us explaining everything. That's when I decided I wouldn't do it at a local centre. By the time we went to Bangkok, we were very confident,' she said. She and her sister had their eye operations on Mar 21.
'Dr Chow drove us from our hotel to the centre and even gave us a Thai handphone to use in case we needed to contact him. It was excellent service and we had a holiday as well,' said Ms Chow.
Ms Jolly Tan, 27, an analyst with an investment bank found out about Health Aesthetics when she was surfing the Net for information on LASIK. Said Ms Tan: 'I was comparing prices and services. My first impression was that they were travel agents. But that soon changed. Dr Toh was very professional and not pushy at all. He just laid out all the facts for me and it was up to me what I wanted to do.'
That made up her mind for her. 'In the end, it worked out to be about the same cost but I had a holiday thrown in,' said Ms Tan. She now has perfect eyesight.
So far, Health Aesthetics has helped 18 Singapore patients get cross border medical care in Bangkok. Eleven of them went for LASIK, four for dermatology procedures, one for liposuction, one for laser teeth whitening and one for a botox injection.
