The Ministry of Health and Welfare on April 29 announced that the number of foreign patients who visited the country last year for medical tourism reached a record-high 606,000. Shown above is Dr. Song Sang-hoon, a professor of pediatric urology at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, with a Kazakh patient and her guardian.

By Lee Jihae

The number of foreign visitors to the country for medical tourism last year reached a record-high 606,000.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare on April 29 said the number of such patients saw a whopping 144.2% jump from 248,000 in 2022.

The ministry defines a foreign patient as a non-resident who receives medical care in Korea and is not registered or eligible for national health insurance, even as a dependent.

The number of such patients steadily posted annual growth of an average 23.5% between 2009, when medical institutions received permission to accept them, and 2019.

The figure in 2019 set a then record 497,000 but plummeted to 120,000 a year later due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tally gradually climbed back over the past three years to hit 606,000 last year.

Foreign patients from 198 countries last year made their way to the country, mostly from Japan, China, the U.S., Thailand and Mongolia in that order. Those from Taiwan (866.7%) and Japan (762.8%) posted the highest jumps.

Most of them went for dermatology (35.2%), followed by plastic surgery (16.8%), internal medicine (13.4%) and checkups (7.4%). By region, the Seoul metropolitan area kept its domination by attracting 88.9% of the patients.

Jung Eun young, director-general of the ministry's Health Industry Bureau, said, "We will expand public support and continue to revamp and improve irrational regulations and policies to emerge as a leading nation of Asian medical tourism."

jihlee08@korea.kr