Korea’s attraction of foreign patients is recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. However, visits by patients from the Middle East, who come here to treat relatively serious diseases instead of skin, beauty, and plastic surgery, are slow to recover, medical sources said.

Especially slow is the recovery of visits by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) patients, requiring countermeasures, they pointed out.

The reasons for the slow increase in the number of UAE patients visiting Korea include a shortage of flights, inconvenience for long-term stays, such as accommodation and food, and the emergence of competing countries in Europe and Southeast Asia.

That forces government officials to need help to identify the causes and find solutions.

Foreign patient arrivals in Korea steadily increased from 60,201 in 2009 to 497,464 in 2019, but the number plummeted to 117,069 in 2020 due to Covid-19.

Since then, the number of patients has recovered to 145,842 in 2021 and 248,110 in 2022. However, the recovery of patients from the Middle East, including the UAE, could be faster.

Patient arrivals from the UAE steadily increased from 158 in 2011, when the intergovernmental agreement took into effect, to 342 in 2012, 1,151 in 2013, 2,633 in 2014, 2,946 in 2015, 3,562 in 2016, 3,384 in 2017, 3,034 in 2018, and 4,089 in 2019.

However, after a sharp drop to 794 in 2020 and 669 in 2021 due to Covid-19, the number recovered to 1,439 in 2022. It still needs to return to the pre-Covid-19 level of 3,000.

Why Seoul should care about attracting UAE patients

In May, the Yoon Suk Yeol government announced the "Strategy for Attracting Foreign Patients for the New Korean Healthcare Boom in 2023," pointing out that one of the problems in attracting foreign patients to Korea is the concentration in certain medical specialties, such as plastic surgery and dermatology, and emphasizing that it must focus on the high-value-added treatment of foreign patients.

Among foreign visitors, UAE patients are noteworthy because the severity of their illnesses is higher than in other countries, which can be an indicator of the government's desired direction, the sources said.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, plastic surgery and skin care, patients have consistently accounted for nearly 30 percent of all foreign patients visiting Korea, including 29.7 percent in 2019 and 28.1 percent in 2022. In contrast, the share of patients with six severe diseases -- rare diseases, cancer, heart disease, severe incurable diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and severe burns - has averaged only 8.5 percent over the past five years.

Against this backdrop, the number of UAE patients who came to Korea for cancer treatment in the last five years was 304 in 2018, 570 in 2019, 97 in 2020, 129 in 2021, and 193 in 2022, equivalent to 10 percent, 13.9 percent, 12.2 percent, 19.2 percent, and 13.4 percent of UAE patients in those years.

While 8.5 percent of all foreign patients in Korea came to treat six serious diseases, more than 10 percent of UAE patients visited Korea for cancer treatment every year.

Why Middle Eastern patients move away from Korea

Medical and government officials recognize that the recovery of patients from the Middle East has been slower than those from other countries since Covid-19.

"We are attracting 70 to 80 percent of the pre-Covid-19 level of foreign patients in serious illnesses," said an official at the foreign patient treatment center at a tertiary general hospital in Seoul. "The influx of foreign patients will continue to increase if the number of flights increases and the prices of hotels and other accommodation facilities stabilize."

However, the inflow of patients from the Middle East has stagnated. Hospitals are still making inquiries through the UAE Health Authority, but the official noted that they need to give a cool answer. He added that these officials just keep saying they have plans to expand the number of patients sent to Korea and are preparing procedures.

"I know that patients from the Middle East are very satisfied with Korean healthcare, but I heard that the UAE Health Authority has developed a lot of options in Europe and Southeast Asia due to difficulties entering Korea during Covid-19," he said. "Perhaps this is why fewer patients are coming to Korea."

An official from another tertiary general hospital said, "Although the number of foreign patients is recovering after Covid-19, Middle Eastern patients’ arrivals are a little slower to recover. We understand that there are other factors than dissatisfaction with the quality of medical care."

The reasons for the slow recovery of patients from the Middle East, including the UAE, identified by the ministry and the Korea Healthcare Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), include a shortage of flights to Korea, insufficient accommodation for families to stay for a long period, and difficulties in living, including meals.

"The recovery of patients from the Middle East has been slow since Covid-19,” a KHIDI official said. “UAE officials say there are fewer flights to Korea than before Covid-19, and problems with non-medical services, such as accommodation."

Middle Eastern patients are relatively severely ill, so their families have to live in Korea for a long time, and they often talk about difficulties with accommodation, the official noted. He added that they are satisfied with medical services but talk about other difficulties.

"These are issues that are difficult for hospitals to resolve alone and need to be delivered to the health and welfare ministry for interagency cooperation," he said.

An official from the ministry’s Health Industry Overseas Expansion Division acknowledged that the recovery of patients from the Middle East has been slow, saying it is striving to restore it through steady communication with the UAE.

"We don't know exactly until this year's foreign patient statistics come out, but we understand that the number of foreign patients has recovered by about 70 percent compared to 2019, the peak year before Covid-19," the official said.

The official went on to say, "We understand that the number of patients from the Middle East, including the UAE, is about half of what it was in 2019, so it has been slower to return to pre-Covid-19 levels (than patients from other regions).

“So, we are constantly communicating with the UAE to get their opinions on whether there are any difficulties in sending UAE patients to Korea," he said.

While flights and accommodation are the immediate issues that need to be addressed to attract Middle Eastern patients, long-term challenges also need to be addressed.

The medical field suggested that to attract Middle Eastern patients to Korea, the government should continue to promote the treatment of specific diseases, open a Korean office for Middle Eastern patients, provide specialized caregivers for Middle Eastern patients, provide a fast track for foreign patients, issue medical stay visas, and simplify the extension of domestic visas for long-term treatment.

Another official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, "These are suggestions that came up during the meeting on attracting foreign patients. We are aware of problems, including the lack of PR activities, so we are preparing a specialized publicity plan. We will prepare comprehensive measures in consultation with related ministries."