by Michele Catahay

Guam - Medtral New Zealand is a medical tourism company set up by New Zealand physicians to provide people living in other countries access to world-class surgery and after care in some of New Zealand's leading private hospitals. According to Medtral New Zealand's managing director, Steve Nichols, they've been working with TakeCare over the last six to nine months in forming an alliance.

"There has been a process of showing TakeCare Asia the things we offer," Nichols said. "We've had some of their people come to New Zealand, take them through the facility so that they see the environment and the surgeons. So there has been a due diligence process that's been going on for several months."

Medtral New Zealand's goal is to provide a smooth and stress free process. Take care clients are provided with an international patient coordinator who will organize all medical travel, treatment and care. After a patient receives an off island referral from TakeCare, they will be sent to hospitals in New Zealand that have partnerships with Medtral.

"Our hospitals are high-level hospitals. We cover a full range of specialty treatments and so on. We provide cardiac, orthopedic, eurological, general, surgical, gynecological and a full range of medical specialties," said Nichols.

The hospitals are all centrally located within the city of Auckland, and Nichols said, "The first of our hospital was established in 1906, for over a hundred years. That is Mercy Hospital and that was started by the Catholic Mercy Mission - The Sisters of Mercy - and the second hospital, ascot hospital was built about two years ago. Mercy is about 155 beds and has seven operating rooms and ascot hospital has 88 beds and 12 operating rooms."

Ascot Hospital is a state of the art private hospital which provides an extensive range of surgical operations and medical procedures, it's the first hospital to introduce robotic surgery and is a fully integrated hospital with onsite radiology, pharmacy and laboratory services as well has a comprehensive state of the art cancer care center. Medtral is also fully compliant with both the American Medical Association's New Guidelines for Medical Tourism, and the American College of Surgeons' Statement on Medical and Surgical Tourism.

"The option that we offer is an English speaking First World option. We're relatively close to Guam, as well. The flight to New Zealand is about eight hours," said Nichols.

For more information you can always call TakeCare in Tamuning or visit Medtral online.