Mexico City, Mexico - According to Patients Beyond Borders statistics, Mexico might soon be in first place as the world's leading destination for medical tourism.

In 2012, the last year for which statistics are available, Mexico received one million foreign patients, second only to Thailand, which reached 1.2 million visitors.

Mexico is in an ideal position to overtake Thailand, primarily because of its proximity to the world's largest source of medical tourists, the United States. The U.S. represents 40 percent of total health tourism in the world, says the director of the Médica Sur private health care firm, Sergio Rodríguez.

"The quality conditions of private health care services in Mexico are very competitive, and in many cases you can find that they have the same level of quality as the best health institutions in the world," Rodríguez said in an interview.

There are presently 10 hospitals in Mexico certified by the Joint Commission International, which evaluates quality and service levels at private health institutions. Thailand currently has 32 accreditations.

But Mexico is on track, because as of July of this year, a domestic certification program lists 90 private hospitals as having medical tourism accreditation, with another 119 in the process of obtaining enfranchisement.

According to a Euromonitor study on Health and Wellness Tourism in Mexico, the sales growth in this segment (health) is likely to be boosted by medical tourism, which in 2017 is expected to represent 73 percent of the value of total segment sales."

The most commonly sought after medical tourism treatments in Mexico are esthetic, dental, oncology, fertility and weight control.

Detriments to the growth of this type of tourism are insecurity and the shortage of both translation services and service providers who are able to speak English, an advantage that can be found in Thailand and Malaysia, according to Patients Beyond Borders, a consumer information service in the field of medical and health travel.