Medical tourism in Germany

Medical tourism in Germany has returned to a stable equilibrium following entry restrictions and the pandemic. Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (H-BRS) has analyzed the figures for 2021. According to the study, almost 65 percent of all international patients now come from neighboring countries.

The results vary considerably across the federal states. For its latest analysis, the Medical Tourism Research Center at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences evaluated data from approximately 155,100 patients who received inpatient or outpatient treatment in Germany in 2021.

"Every year, millions of people choose to be treated in foreign clinics because, for example, medical care in their home country is unavailable or inadequate, the distance to a specialist in a neighboring country is shorter than in their own country, or treatment abroad is significantly cheaper than at home. The cross-border use of medical services is one of the consequences of increasing globalization. Around 30 countries worldwide are heavily involved in the medical tourism segment, and another 70 nations have individual clinics that attract international patients.

For years, Germany has been one of the world's leading medical tourism destinations, both in terms of the number of foreign patients treated and in terms of treatment quality and service.