In November 2022 Bookimed invited the director of the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster Gunta Uspele for an interview, to discuss market insight and tendencies of the Medical tourism in Latvia.

Medical Tourism in Latvia: Fast Facts

• Annual patient flow: 57,000
• Price-level: low, medium
• Top patients’ countries: UK, Germany, Ukraine, Estonia, Canada, Sweden, Ireland
• Top treatments: phlebology, obesity treatment, plastic surgery.

Gunta Uspele, shared with Bookimed significant achievements and challenges Latvian healthcare faced because of the pandemic and the Russian war against Ukraine in 2022. Also, she shared secrets about how Latvian clinics remain on the edge of the latest medical technologies but still provide medical services for international patients at very affordable prices.

On the question about how did her personal path in medical tourism start? Gunta replied the following:

During my 25-year career, I have been always managing activities related to medical tourism. First, we developed a business in Jurmala with its healing nature resources focusing on spa and wellness, and rehabilitation services. But then we started hospitals in Jurmala providing child births and bariatric treatments for patients from abroad. In 2012, we started to involve more partners, founded Latvian Health Tourism Cluster. Now the Latvian Medical Tourism Cluster counts 67 clinics, both private and municipal. They are single- and multi specialty medical facilities specialized mainly in bariatric surgery, infertility treatment, dentistry, plastic surgery, check-up programs, aesthetic laser treatment, dermatology, and phlebology etc.

Read the full interview here!