More Russians heading to Finland for health care

Health tourism is a growing industry in Finland thanks to an increasing amount of Russian customers.  The latest figures show a major increase in Russians seeking Finnish healthcare over the last few years, and experts say that the trend will continue.

Tero Silvola, managing director of healthcare broker Nordic Clinic, told the YLE news agency, “It is now predicted that, over the next 10 years, the Russian healthcare market will grow. Private markets can grow up to three-fold from the current level.

Meanwhile, officials from Orton hospital say that the majority of its foreign clientele now come from Russia.

The hospital’s managing director Juha Aarvala told the media, “In the last three years, the number has grown around 60-70 percent each year. At this moment, the impact is around 5-10 percent of our turnover. The need and potential is noticeably bigger than what we have at this moment realised.”

But experts say that the industry still has work to do in ordered properly cater to the needs of foreign customers. The language barrier remains a big concern, and expansion efforts have so for been limited due to a lack of facilities and increased demand among Finns.