Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 2016

Bevan Springer is an award-winning journalist and public relations professional. He is the President of Marketplace Excellence, a public relations agency, and the

Caribbean Media Exchange, a charitable organization focused on sustainable development, especially the role of media and tourism in sustainability.

economy is robust. Not only will we see the

number of tourists significantly increasing as

patients and their families come to the Cayman

Islands for healing and care, but ancillary services

have already felt economic benefits. I am talking

here of (national airline) Cayman Airways,

hotels, hire car businesses, restaurants, shops

and others who cater to those seeking out the

excellent services of Health City.”

Dr. Abraham admits there are challenges running

a multimillion-dollar facility in the Caribbean,

especially when it comes to logistics.

“For a lot of the high-end work that we do we

require consumables which may have to come

from various parts of the world. So the logistics

of getting them onto the island can sometimes

be a challenge. We’re slowly overcomingmost of

these and we’ve established supply chain lines

so we can get them all of the time. Sometimes,

for some of the personnel, especially in some

of these high technology services, we do have

some challenges in getting people on island, so

we do have to look elsewhere to get some of these

people in,” he explained, adding that Health

City has been sourcing some of these from its

institutions in India.

Dr. Abraham asserts that specialised hospitals

across the Caribbean will help address the

healthcare needs of the region.

“I think that for the Caribbean as a whole, if

you have competencies in one particular area,

you may not have the kind of wherewithal

to set up multiple areas. And what would

be more ideal would be a hub-and-spoke

kind of model where you may have flows

into one particular area. So there could be

other medical tourism destinations in the

Caribbean and I think it is needed, but maybe

with an emphasis on some things that are

different from what is here, and this could

be a good hub-and-spoke model.”

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