KYIV. Dec 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The flow of foreigners in the field of medical tourism will increase in 2022, but this market will return to pre-COVID indicators no earlier than in three years, such expectations were voiced by specialized experts at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

President of the Ukrainian Association of Medical Tourism Violetta Yanyshevska predicts that the medical tourism market will return to the pre-COVID indicators no earlier than in 3 years.

"Our market, unfortunately, next year will not recover to the indicators of 2019. I think, like many international experts, that the market will recover in 3 years," Yanyshevska said.

She noted that COVID-19 affected the flow of medical tourism to Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine managed to gain the necessary experience in 1.5 years of work in the COVID environment.

"The coronavirus will affect the flows of inbound and outbound medical tourism. At the same time, we already have experience of more than a year and a half of facing this threat in the world. Therefore, we have this experience, we know how to solve problems with border crossing and how to help patients from many countries. I believe that the flow (of such tourists from abroad) will exist and will increase," she said.

Vadym Zukin, the operating director of the Leleka maternity hospital, predicts that in 2022 foreign patients will choose Ukraine for medical tourism because of the value for money.

"We hope that in 2022 we will have an increase in the flow of patients from abroad. Of course, they will travel because of our quality and price," he explained.

At the same time, the expert pointed to the low image of Ukraine for the development of medical tourism.

"It must be said here that the image of our country is not the kind for which patients are willing to overpay, and very often, when foreigners choose our medical facility, they doubt because of the country's image," Zukin said.

In turn, the surgeon-oncologist of the Spizhenko Clinic, Bohdan Zadorizhny, drew attention to the growth in demand for medical tourism in Ukraine and believes that it will continue to grow.

"From 2017 to 2019, the number of foreigners who received treatment and diagnostics in Ukraine doubled ... The statistics speaks for itself: both trends and demand for medical services in Ukraine will only grow, despite a temporary timeout due to the pandemic," Zadorizhny said.

The medical director of the Simpladent clinic, Veronika Vasilyeva, predicts that the inflow of foreign patients to dental clinics will also increase.

"In the field of dentistry, the number of foreign patients will increase. We felt this at our clinic in the second half of 2021. Moreover, foreign patients are more aware of vaccination, and therefore it is not a problem for them to move to another country," she explained.

First Deputy Director General of the Oberig Clinic Oleksandr Linchevsky, in turn, noted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of a multidisciplinary hospital.

"The pandemic and the opening of COVID departments have allowed us in recent years to strengthen the anesthesiology team. The quality of equipment, monitoring equipment, and respiratory support equipment allow our anesthesiologists and resuscitators to squeeze all the power out of it. Therefore, no matter how difficult these years were, they benefited a multidisciplinary clinic, especially the team. We used absolutely all the capabilities of our diagnostic and intensive care unit to treat patients," he said.