Querétaro among Mexico’s top 10 Medical Tourism destinations

Published November 14th, 2021

10% of patients in hospitals are foreign, reveals sector cluster

The high medical specialty that congregates in Querétaro places the entity as a pole of attraction for medical tourism in the center of the country. Even in times of pandemic, it has managed to maintain its levels of care for foreign patients.

These are good quality specialties offered in cardiology, cancer care, and treatment, in addition to complex endocrine problems, anti-immune problems, as well as internal medicine, surgery, and plastic surgery.

According to information from the federal Ministry of Tourism, the destinations for medical tourism are Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Mexico City, Chihuahua, Jalisco, Nuevo León, Puebla, Quintana Roo and Querétaro.

In an interview, the president of the Querétaro Medical and Health Cluster, Juan Manuel Fraga, reported that between 5 and 10% of all patients treated in high specialties come from entities such as Guanajuato, Hidalgo, San Luis Potosí in addition to areas of the State of Mexico as Michoacán. He also specified that the average stay in private hospitals is two to three days.

Querétaro, due to the talent of its medical and nursing staff, which every day works to strengthen, as well as its hospital infrastructure, has become an important recipient of medical tourism in the region. A highly specialized development pole with more reputation and prestige.

“We know that we provide very good quality services and specialties such as cancer or cardiology so that people do not have to go to Mexico City, Monterrey or the United States, so a little is to continue improving, and that people know that we are competitive that will attract not only health tourists, but it will prevent them from going to be cared for elsewhere, and it is also part of attracting more investment because it will boast of their safety, but also of good health services” which also manages to arouse the interest of more specialists prepared to come to join and help generate greater health solutions, he said.

He shared that they are also working to generate quality indicators in hospitals and strengthen competitiveness. Additionally, he mentioned the relevant investment that is being generated in the state with the opening of more hospital infrastructure but above all with state-of-the-art technology equipment.

He emphasized that the location of Querétaro is more focused on medical tourism in the center of the country. “I think there is an internal market in Mexico, for example, Querétaro has two million inhabitants, but if it extends to a radius of 200 kilometers, not counting Mexico City, it has six to seven million inhabitants.”

PANDEMIC

Regarding the impact on this activity due to the health emergency, he commented that hospitals were distracted by this issue and there were fewer procedures from other specialties, but precisely the demand for attention from the virus caused people even from Mexico City to choose to come to Querétaro for health care.

He specified that on the subject of diseases such as cancer, the pandemic did not change its rhythm and the attention of people from either Guanajuato or Michoacán, among others, was continued.

“We are confident that Querétaro will continue to be a regional reference point in medical tourism,” he declared.

CONFERENCES

Although the state in two years of the pandemic has managed to maintain the activity of patient care in the central region, the holding of congresses or conventions on the health segment has been greatly diminished.

The report of the Secretary of Tourism of the state of Querétaro states that while in 2019, the year before the pandemic, the entity hosted an average of 25 events that brought together 21,460 participants, for 2020, there were only activities in February and March, months in which three events were held with an influx of 2,100 people.

For 2021 and a couple of months after the end of the year, the medical segment only registers in the month of June at the headquarters of the XXVI International Congress of Pediatric AMOHP with 200 attendees.

CLUSTER

It should be noted that Querétaro along with Nuevo León and Puebla are the states that have a medical cluster and Querétaro is the only one that’s certified.

Currently, Querétaro has four hospitals certified with international standards and 22 health institutions affiliated with the international Patient Safety project. Although this infrastructure represents a good starting point to fully immerse yourself in the medical tourism industry, it is intended that eight other organizations will join the global initiative.

Part of the strategy to shore up Querétaro as a medical tourism powerhouse in the country will be to set up customer acquisition schemes directly in the countries of origin. It also wants to train health personnel to be able to speak other languages, as well as forge alliances with laboratories, banks, universities, and other agents.

The cluster brings together 15 organizations in this entity, including hospitals, diagnostic centers, training centers, and outpatient centers.