SOUTH KOREA: the dark horse of medical travel
South Korea is becoming known as the plastic surgery capital of Asia.
Lured by the Korean Wave and Korean entertainers, Asians are flocking to Korean cosmetic sugeons. Some 10,000 people journeyed to Korea last year for plastic surgery from Japan and China. While the industry is still in its infancy, travellers who want rounded cheekbones or flat tummies can choose from 80 clinics along Busan's Seomyon Street, known as Beauty Town.
The Korean government and 35 hospitals are investing to market Korea as a cosmetic surgery destination. While some Chinese already come here, South Korean plastic surgeons see a huge potential market in China. Chinese in fashion centers such as Shanghai see them as safer and more skilled than local doctors. They also want ears, chins and chests just like the South Korean stars popular in China who have gone under the knife in Seoul's best clinics. The aspiration to resemble Korean stars is creating a big following from Asia. Many ask for the eyes and nose of Lee Young-ae or Chae Rim, popular Korean Wave film stars.
Korean plastic surgeon Kim Byung-gun runs South Korea's largest cosmetic surgery, BK Clinic and is one of the country's most successful surgeons. He sees a bonanza in China as 40 Chinese women a month are already flying to his Seoul clinic for cosmetic surgery. His Shanghai clinic, Beauty China Medical Center, set up in partnership with Chinese and Korean hospitals was the first part South Korean-owned plastic surgery clinic in Shanghai approved by the government. Now, about 10 more South Korean clinics have opened up in the increasingly affluent city.
While medical students in China can begin performing plastic surgery immediately after finishing five years of education, South Koreans need six years in school and four years' residency at a hospital before they can operate in private practice.
Two advisory board members of The Medical Tourism Association (MTA) are flying to South Korea in September to view all hospitals who are interested in medical travel. South Korea is making a huge push to make itself seen as a destination. The South Korean government is currently focusing on the modernization of healthcare system as they accept that to promote medical travel it must offer sophisticated healthcare services. While 30 hospitals cater for foreigners, only the country’s largest, The Severance Hospital, in Seoul, is JCI accredited.
Comments »
jwoodman1 - 18/09/2007 16:32 - Visit»
Thanks for your informative article. It will be interesting to learn what news your two medical advisors bring home from their visit to South Korea. I am here in Seoul on the same tour, and have visited several South Korean hospitals with impressive specialties in orthopedics, oncology (they boast Asia's first robotics cyberknife), extensive health screenings, reproductive and cardiovascular.
As with most other medical travel countries (e.g. Thailand, Costa Rica), cosmetic sugery may have led Korea's claim to fame; however, the healthcare and travel insfrastructure here is excellent, the prices are right and those 35 hospitals offer a host of procedures that I expect will far outweigh tummy tucks in the near future.
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