Seoul, April 2 (IANS) The number of foreigners travelling to South Korea for medical treatment reached a new high in 2024, government data showed on Wednesday, with their visits believed to have created an economic value of up to 14 trillion won ($9.55 billion).
More than 1.17 million foreigners visited the country for medical treatment last year, nearly doubling from the 605,768 tallied in 2023, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Yonhap news agency reported.
The spike was partly attributed to a government-initiated project to attract more foreign patients.
The visiting patients are forecast to have spent some 8 trillion won at hospitals, generating an overall economic effect of some 14 trillion won, according to the ministry.
In 2023, foreign patients paid 3.9 trillion won in medical expenses here, creating an economic impact worth 6.9 trillion won.
An accumulated 5.05 million foreign nationals visited Korea for medical services from 2009 to 2024.
Last year, 37.7 per cent of the patients were from Japan, followed by 22.3 per cent from China, 8.7 per cent from the United States, 7.1 per cent from Taiwan, and 3.3 per cent from Thailand.
In particular, the number of Taiwanese patients surged over fivefold from the previous year to 83,456 in 2024, while a record high of 101,733 American patients visited South Korea.
By hospital type, 56.6 per cent of the foreign patients visited dermatologists last year.
Some 11.5 per cent visited plastic surgery hospitals, with 10 per cent visiting internal medicine doctors, 4.5 per cent medical checkup centres, and 2.7 per cent oriental medicine clinics.
Meanwhile, the country also saw a steady spike in the number of foreign medical doctors. This comes amid a prolonged walkout by doctors and trainee doctors over a government-proposed spike in the medical school quota.
The number has been on a steady rise since 2019 to 472 in 2020, 485 in 2021, 500 in 2022, 521 in 2023, and 546 in the following year, the data showed.
–IANS
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