Facility ‘will boost medical tourism’

Ear, nose and throat surgeon and newly qualified facial plastic surgeon Dr Cameron MacIntosh said he would forge ahead with plans to build a day hospital in Park Drive despite the NHI.

His plans for the hospital have been approved and he is planning on starting a business promoting Nelson Mandela Bay as a premier destination for medical tourism.

“The services we will provide to people will be wonderful,” he said.

“We will be the Woolworths Food of the surgical world – nobody is going to want to go to Shoprite,” he added.

“The building itself will only be an operating theatre and we will be closed at night. You won’t be able to just arrive and demand to be seen,” he said.

MacIntosh said he believed people would pay for good service, the best surgeons and facilities in the city.

He said: “If government wants to buy ENT services from us, I will be happy to sell them to it. It will be a step up as there are no ENT services available in the public sector.

“People are sent to Cape Town and Bloemfontein instead.

“I do want to say though that we are seeing many specialists who are paid to work for the state who work in the private sector as well. Maybe the department of health can sort that out before they think of implementing something like the NHI,” he said.

“But I am feeling bullish about the NHI,” he said.

“Our plans to start medical tourism in the city won’t be affected because the NHI doesn’t cover foreigners.”