German Ambassador Angelika Renate Storz Chakarji (right) addressing a medical road show organised by German National Tourist Office (GNTO) at the Oryx Rotana Hotel in Doha yesterday. Also seen is Antje Roeding Boudier, Director, Marketing and Sales, Gulf Countries, GNTO. Salim Matramkot
By Isabel Ovalle
DOHA: Over 900 Qatari nationals travelled to Germany for treatment from January to September this year, choosing the West European nation mainly for advanced medical care and rehabilitation.
The trend has been appreciated by the German National Tourist Office (GNTO) and the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) which organised a workshop on medical travel to Germany yesterday in Doha. The German Ambassador to Qatar, Angelika Renate Storz-Chakarji, participated in the event, along with Antje Roeding-Boudier of the GNTO, and Leonor Boscher of German Health Management and Consulting (GHMC).
Storz-Chakarji said that in 2011, a total of 12,600 visas for Qataris were issued for travel to Germany, 5pc of which were medical visas. The number this year has gone up, with 18,400 visas issued till September, 5pc of which were for medical reasons.
Roeding-Boudier said that in 2011, Germany registered 1 million overnight stays of tourists visiting from GCC countries, becoming the second destination in Europe for travellers from this region. The country has 2,000 hospitals, 1,200 preventive treatment centres and 350 health resorts. According to the GNTO, estimations for the coming years show an increase in the number of international patients visiting Germany. The country received 77,000 international patients in 2010. Records of German hospitals show that nearly 4,200 citizens from the Arab Gulf States were treated in 2010.
Boscher said that the German healthcare system is ready to receive patients from Arabic speaking countries, such as Qatar, offering translators, as well as assistance on location, transport and accommodation through different companies. According to the representative from GHMC, Germany has “not only good doctors, it also has good prices as well, that are set by the state and are lower than those in the US and United Kingdom”. Boscher added that “most hospitals in Germany are state-owned, because we think that access to good medical treatment is a right”.
