Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 2016 - 2017

OUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

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.

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.

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.”

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

Dr. Abraham asserts that specialised hospitals

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.

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