Medical Facilities in the Philippines

Medical Facilities in the Philippines

Going to the Doctor in the Philippines is not like in the UK, the first thing I notice is that you don't get fobbed off on the phone, and told to come on Thursday for an appointment when its only Monday and youre sick as a parrot, and also, you don't have to go and see a GP when you know its a problem with your ear, or your eye, then have to be shunted for a specialist appointment in 6 months time, in the Philippines you can access excellent medical facilities within the same day in the majority of cases.


Medical Treatment is good value, speedy, and effective, a Doctor's consultation will cost you approximately P500.00 or about £7.50, if the Doctor prescibes, the prescription is paid by yourself, depending on the medicine, most Doctors can see a patient immedeatly, some take slightly longer if they are busy with many patients, a consultation would normally last from 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on the required diagnosis and treatment, not like in UK where youre allowed 10 minutes.


Many local people subscribe to Phlhealth, which is a Government plan, most people pay according to salary band, this is where the Government picks up some of the cost, and the individual pays a contribution, this is mainly used for hospitalization charges, however the point to note here is that Healthcare in the Philippines is a mixture of private and social, the social is for people who are unable to pay, Westerners can well afford to pay privately.

Dental treatment in the Philippines.

Dental Surgeons in the Philippines are highly trained and provide excellent standards of care, they are board certified but much more importantly, they are xcellent value for money.


A dental consultation costs around P500.00 or about £7.50 not £60.00 like in the UK, for that, you could obtain a tooth extraction and other root canal treatment, other work such as cleaning or time consuming work, would be priced on application, however all Dentists in the Philippines work to set charges which are universal among Dentists, access to dentists is widely availabe, no NHS Problems in the Philippines, dental care is good.


Many UK Expats who travel between the Philippines and UK, tend to leave any major dental work to their next trip in country, where they then arrange to have the work carried out.

The Increase in Medical Tourism.

The Philippines is fast becoming the destination for medical tourism, this is where waiting lists and inadequacies and lack of funds in certain NHS Trust area's are leading to an increase in interest for travelers to the Philippines looking for 1st class medical treatment.


The Philippines especially in the capital city Manila, has a wealth of private clinics offering everything from surgical transplants to liposuction and other cosmetic effect surgeries, plus the in care is superb, costs are much lower than in Western countries, and many foreigners are now traveling to the Philippines for major medical operations, which they cannot access back in the UK, due to waiting lists, and other considerations.