● Specify the procedure regarding the certifica-
tion, in accordance with strict international
standards, of hospitals, clinics and hotels that
wish to be included in the relevant pro-
grammes, in order to ensure the safety of
tourists that will seek medical services in
Greece throughout their stay in the country,
and to establish control mechanisms for all
health service providers.
● Establish specialized and properly organized
Medical Tourist Facilitators, which will mediate
between foreign patients and Greek medical
service providers, offering suitable packages
(hotels, hospitals, tours, shopping etc.).
● Systematically advertise abroad the options
regarding the provision of medical services to
foreigners, and lay out a dynamic policy for
promoting these services to selected client
segments.
● Develop national and international partner-
ships for the more systematic attraction of for-
eign patients, on behalf of all Greek health
service providers.
The sectors in which Greece could, immediately
and without undertaking substantial new invest-
ment (given that it boasts a large number of med-
ical practitioners and centres, as compared to its
population), offer competitive medical tourism
services, are the following:
● Full diagnosis.
● Specialized medical interventions (orthopaedic
surgery etc.) in private tertiary care hospitals
(mainly in Athens and Thessaloniki), as well as
in public and university hospitals in other major
cities.
●
In vitro
fertilization and assisted reproduction,
as part of partnerships between specialized
medical centres and hotels all over the country
and, more specifically, in Athens, Thessaloniki,
Patras and Crete. Another advantage for the
development of assisted reproduction services
is that Greece’s legislation on these matters is
more favourable than that of other European
countries.
● Dialysis, in the context of partnerships
between hotels and hostels with dialysis cen-
tres. Apart from public hospitals, dialysis serv-
ices are also offered by private centres in
Athens, Thessaloniki, Crete and Rhodes.
● Rehabilitation and follow-up treatment. Some
outstanding, albeit underutilized, such medical
centres are mainly located in Thessaly and
Macedonia, where hotels and hostels with
excess capacity are also operating.
● Plastic surgery, ophthalmology and cosmetic
Trade with Greece
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