​The son of a Romanian woman, who worked as a maid in a boarding house in Catania, was beaten up by local classmates in high school for winning first place. And his mother (who worked in the country as a research biochemist at Cantacuzino) came with him to Romania to fix his teeth because it was cheaper than in Italy.

Every year, thousands of foreign tourists come to us to solve their medical problems, because in their countries the same intervention would cost much more. According to the data of the National Institute of Statistics, they left about 90 million lei before the pandemic. Last year, they provided more than 151 million lei to health care accounts.

At the same time, interest in shopping tourism or related to religious pilgrimages decreased

Growth occurs not only in the number of stays in the country, but also in the number of tourists.

Not all of them are necessarily patients of Romanian hospitals, but some of them belong to them. Evelina Popescu is from Canada, where she works in IT&C. Hailing from Bihor, she was away from the country for 20 years, but due to her mother’s illness and hospitalization, she returned home to be by her side. She is one of approximately 5,000 tourists who came to Romania for medical treatment.

However, there is no doubt that medical tourism in Romania has grown significantly in recent years, reaching more than 10% of the total number of hotel customers in major cities such as Bucharest, Sibiu and Cluj. According to research by private tour operators, the majority come for cosmetic surgery, dental work, bariatric surgery and wellness. Every year, this type of tourism grows by about 30%, say the authors of the study.

The study also found that the most popular are clinics in Bucharest, Sibiu or Cluj, as well as private medical centers.

“During the operation, relatives of patients come to the hotel, or later patients who return to the city for post-operative treatment and examination. The companion stays at the hotel for at least two days, but some stay for ten days. Look for budget hotels located near hospitals. They are completely fixed on medical tourism, they do not visit the city and are held captive in a hotel, where they eat and use all possible services, from laundry to taxi. They don’t care about anything else. They stay with the patient all day, to the clinic or hospital, and in the evening they come back and eat at the hotel,” adds Kelin Ile, one of the authors of the study.

This phenomenon is not observed in Romania, but throughout Eastern Europe.

For many years, Gdansk, the largest city on the coast of Poland, has attracted foreign tourists with its historic center or nearby sandy beaches. More recently, tourists have found another reason to travel there: dental clinics.

“When we started 10 years ago, we were almost the only company focused on international patients,” says Anna Sarzynska, owner of Anna Dental Clinic in downtown Gdańsk. “Today, almost every clinic in the city offers its services to foreigners,” writes the FT.

Ms. Sarzynska says that about 80% of her customers come from abroad, mostly from Scandinavia, as well as Great Britain and Ireland. She had to recruit additional patients.

According to PwC, medical tourism is growing in Central and Eastern Europe by 12-15% annually

Magdalena Rutkovska, owner of the consulting company Medical Travel Partner, has been working in medical tourism since 2010 and has noticed an increased interest in investing in this sector.

“Every month I get inquiries from several new clinics that want to start serving international clients,” she says. About 80% of its clients are from abroad.

Hungary also has a reputation as a country specializing in dental services for foreigners, while the Czech Republic has greatly developed cataract surgery. Poland is well known for both plastic surgeons and dentists.

“This market has a very high potential, but it is not fully developed,” says Szymon Piatkowski, head of medical consulting in Central and Eastern Europe at PwC. “The region specializes in simple treatments that do not require prior consultation,” he adds.

Patients from Germany, Great Britain and Scandinavian countries usually opt for one-day cosmetic treatments or medical spa treatments, attracted by the competitive prices, which can be two to three times lower than in their home countries.

This trend has been reinforced by an EU directive introduced in 2013 that allows patients to receive medical treatment in any member state that can be reimbursed if covered by national health schemes.