Mini-invasive cardiac surgery in Ukraine is not inferior to the West in terms of service quality: prices are four or even ten times lower than European prices, and global transformations are taking place in the system of providing medical services. Thus, Ukraine has every chance to become a prominent object on the map of international medical tourism.
Today, about 50,000 foreign patients come to Ukraine for treatment each year. According to the Ukrainian Association of Medical Tourism, 25% of guests choose our country because of affordable and high-quality sanatorium services, 18% go to Ukraine to see dentists and ophthalmologists, 57% are patients of reproductive specialists, cardiac surgeons, plastic surgeons and specialists in the field of cellular technologies.
With global changes in the field of providing medical services, introduced by the medical reform, which will officially enter into force on January 1, 2018, the number of foreigners among the patients of domestic clinics will definitely increase. Ukraine has an advantage on the international market of medical services: a very attractive price-quality ratio. Plus, when it comes to reproduction, the legislation is quite liberal compared to many countries.
Patients from abroad have been looking at Ukraine with interest for a long time. But also with apprehension: firstly, they are afraid of living conditions in our hospitals; secondly, the stereotype about the country plays a role, where international treatment protocols and generally European standards of providing medical services are hardly universally used. However, the entry to a completely new level of private Ukrainian medicine, which has been developing rapidly in the last few years, and the systemic structural reform of state medicine, first of all, the streamlining of financial relations between the patient and the hospital, can radically change the perception of Ukraine by foreign patients. Moreover, in the main, as regards the actual treatment, domestic doctors are not just on an equal footing with their foreign colleagues - often, at least, one step ahead. And now the country has created all the prerequisites for quickly making domestic medicine patient-friendly, that is, not only high-quality and at the same time tolerant and safe for the patient, but also as comfortable as possible - both in everyday life and psychologically. Today it is not enough to simply cure - today it is necessary to cure quickly and in comfortable conditions for a person. This is how all leading clinics in the world work, and this is how many clinics in Ukraine already work.
Minimally invasive cardiac surgery in Ukraine: expertise, professionalism, innovations
One of the popular areas of medical tourism in Ukraine is cardiac surgery. And this is the best confirmation of the competence of our medicine: development at the proper level of such a complex field requires expertise, an innovative approach, professionalism, and a good medical school.
By the way, Ukrainian cardiac surgeons not only take on cases that their foreign colleagues refuse to operate, but also actively develop new progressive methods of treatment. A striking example is the transition to a minimally invasive technique for one of the most popular heart operations - multivessel coronary bypass surgery - proposed by the doctors of the Center for Cardiosurgical Care of the private medical network "Dobrobut" (Kyiv). This operation is the only effective method of treating ischemic heart disease, which allows to completely restore blood flow in the heart muscle even after a heart attack. Until the summer of 2017, multivessel shunting was performed all over the world exclusively through a 25-centimeter incision in the sternum - until Dobrobuta cardiac surgeons proved that the same thing can be done through a 5-10-centimeter incision between the ribs. As a result, a person does not lose his life for two or three months, but after three days he returns to adequate physical activity, after four days he is discharged from the hospital, and after a month he leads a normal life.
This is a breakthrough in cardiac surgery. Colleagues from Europe have already taken an interest in the revolutionary developments of the "Dobrobutu" cardiac surgeons, and Ukrainian doctors have begun to prepare for the presentation of the technique they have mastered at the European Congress of Cardiac Surgeons in 2018. "In less than six months, we have performed several dozen successful mini-invasive multivessel coronary bypasses for patients of various ages and with various co-morbidities, and we can confidently say that the future lies precisely in mini-invasive cardiac surgery," says Oleksandr Bablyak, head of the "Dobrobut" Center for Cardiosurgical Care .
Operations on the heart. Price is the question
Undoubtedly, one of the main advantages of Ukrainian medicine compared to foreign ones is the price-quality ratio. "To perform mitral valve plastic surgery in a Polish clinic, you need more than 16,000 euros, in an Italian clinic - 30,000 - 40,000 euros. Moreover, this is not the cost of minimally invasive operations, but due to the incision of the sternum," says Vitaly Tyman, a resident of Lviv, who recently underwent heart surgery and considered treatment options in several clinics in Europe. In Ukraine, cardiac surgery + hospital stay will cost an average of 4,000-5,000 euros. And there is no difference - it will be a mini-invasive intervention or a standard one (there are cases when it is still impossible to operate through a mini-access).
Approximately the same ratio of European and Ukrainian prices in other areas of medicine. This once again demonstrates the attractiveness and huge prospects of domestic medicine in the world market of medical services.
"Our medicine is becoming patient friendly"
The task is to create an image of the country, in whose clinics the patient's comfort, including psychological comfort, is given as much attention as the actual treatment process. "Ukrainian medicine has taken a huge step forward, and now we are already at the level of development where constructive competition encourages us to improve literally every day. And it is not only about the acquisition of the latest generation equipment, the involvement of world-class specialists and compliance with all international treatment protocols. A lot of effort is put into creating comfortable conditions for the patient's stay in the clinic: these are household amenities, and friendliness, and the attention of the staff, and thousands of other moments that sometimes seem secondary, but in the complex are of great importance for quick and effective treatment, "- says Oleg Kalashnikov, co-founder of the private network of medical clinics "Dobrobut". And he adds that, for example, in "Dobrobut" a lot of attention is paid to such an issue, which is generally insignificant in the fight against the disease, but important for patients, such as the staff's knowledge of foreign languages.
"I am particularly proud of the fact that most of our doctors are fluent in English, many in German, some in French and Spanish. In fact, it will not be difficult for an experienced doctor to treat a person, even if the doctor and the patient do not speak the same language. But the language barrier is bad for the psychological mood of the patient, and that is why we do everything to make any patient - both Ukrainian and foreign - feel comfortable in our medical facility," says Oleg Kalashnikov.
Ukrainian medicine is changing, and it is changing radically and quickly, breaking out into world leaders in many fields. Will we become a mecca for medical tourism, like, for example, Israel or Germany? Perhaps. We have everything you need for this: qualified doctors, advanced technologies, an affordable price policy and a desire to develop.
Where are they coming from?
Currently, the majority of foreign patients are citizens of Moldova, Russia and Belarus; Germany, Italy, France and Great Britain are also included in the top ten countries whose residents want to be treated in Ukraine. Recently, many patients are from the United Arab Emirates, Central Asia, and China.
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