Photo Courtesy of Carlos Parra

Medical journeys are growing alongside tourism in Colombia, and in fact are merging. While health services costs in the United States and in other “First World” countries keep rising, more and more Americans and Europeans choose to come to Colombia for a pleasant mix of quality medical attention, sunshine and prices as low as a fourth of what they would pay back home.

The World Bank has acknowledged Colombia as a health services leader in South America and the Caribbean, and Cartagena has been chosen for plastic surgeries, dental treatments and the latest technology in bariatric weight loss operations. An added extra is Cartegena’s safety, beaches, historic sites, shopping, and its talented, kind and joyful people.

Cartagena’s health tourists, mostly from Spain and the United States, travel to “sculpt” their bodies or “construct their smiles.” They appreciate quality, low costs, kind personalized attention and the multidisciplinary medical teams that perform the procedures. “The incomparable warmth of Colombians, together with latest ...technology and excellent clinics, results in safe and integral quality,” says Doctor Armando Lujan, manager of Cirucartagena Medical Services.

Given that the average cost for an aesthetic surgery in Colombia is US $3,500, against US $10,500 in the United Sates, and US $14,000 in Europe, travelers can easily afford the journey, the process and no little shopping while they recover in a calm, historic city by the sea.

Treatment time and costs vary a lot more for dental care, but since quality choices are on hand, numerous cruise, regular or health tourists take advantage of their stay to repair old treatments, restore color, get checked or start a ‘smile design.’ “Prices are five times lower than in the United States,” says Doctor Parra, dentist of Arte Odontológico in Cartagena. “In the last two years, we have had 35 foreign patients.”

Cartagena boasts local medical experts and prominent professionals from all over Colombia and certified, reputable private health centers. The doctors have an average of nine years experience.
Like doctors in the United States, Colombian medical professionals study in local academic institutions and undergraduates start their training in surgery rooms. Many have postgraduate degrees from abroad.

The news of Argentina’s soccer star Diego Maradona’s successful bypass surgery in Cartagena has illustrated the confidence that the world is showing in Colombian medicine. And the success of the Colombian reality television show Cambio Extremo (Extreme Change), which has been presenting the effects of local aesthetic surgeries on common people for over two years, is now permitting centers like the Clínica del Chicó in Bogota to operate on 15 patients a day.

The increasing international demand for surgery in Cartagena has resulted in new creative packages that offer comfort and full, personalized support for travelers. Through the health centers, patients can now be placed in contact with travel agencies, spas, hotels, private accommodations, transportation agents and translators to assist them during their stay.

Insurance policies are available, and 24-hour nurses are sent to the accommodations before and after the surgery. Everything is provided for a quiet, private and pleasant recovery time, even for those who come alone. And what can make you feel better than a place full of smiling Colombians?