Ryan Huang, Channel NewsAsia

SINGAPORE : South Korea revised its law two months ago to allow hospitals to directly seek foreign patients.

And this has reaped results, going by the latest statistics. In May, the number of foreigners who visited South Korea for medical treatment jumped by about 40 per cent to 1,061, compared to a year ago.

South Korea is the latest country to jump on the medical tourism bandwagon.

Under the new law, hospitals can go all out to attract foreign patients, such as paying commissions to agents for referrals.

This puts them on the same playing field as other regional countries.

The country has also eased visa regulations for overseas patients .

Some industry players said there is little to worry about conflicts of interests among agents, if patients do their own homework on what medical treatment they need. This puts them on the same playing field as other regional countries.

While South Korea is widely regarded as a leader in medical technology, it falls far behind leading medical tourism destinations such as Thailand and Singapore , which accounted for 64 per cent of the market last year.

South Korea will also face competition from other players such as India, Malaysia and the Philippines .
John Linton, director of International Health Care Centre at Severance Hospital, said: "It's not just the law that's changed, it's the mindset of Korea. We've been very late in coming into this market and frankly, we've had very poor promotion.

"Once people know the skill of the Korean surgeons and all the good equipment that we have and fantastic outcomes, I think much more people will come. And they'll consider Korea as an option."

South Korea hopes the fast-growing sector will be a new growth engine for its economy.

The global medical tourism sector is expected to grow by 15 to 20 per cent every year. Asia's medical tourism market is worth over US$5 billion and will attract over 6 million patients by 2012.

South Korea plans to tap on this potential by marketing its accessibility and low cost.

Brian Suh, researcher of Global Healthcare Business Centre, Korea Health Industry Development Institute, said: "Korea has good medical skills and easy accessibility, and there's no waiting time.

"We also have competitive prices in medical services. So we are targeting for easy accessibility. We are targeting Japan, China and Russia. At the same time, we are also looking at the United States."

Currently, the most popular treatments for medical tourists in South Korea are cosmetic procedures .

The country is aiming to surpass Singapore and Thailand as Asia's leading medical hub. But it has a lot of catching up to do, going by its projections.

South Korea expects its number of foreign patients to rise fourfold to 200,000 by 2013 - a modest figure compared to market leaders like Singapore, which has already attracted 500,000 medical tourists in 2007.

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