HEALTH SPECIAL

New Delhi, 12 September 2008

Medical Tourism

INDIA ‘FIT’ FAVOURITE

By Radhakrishna Rao

Quietly and efficiently, India is emerging as a favored medical destination for health tourists keen on getting their ailments treated without any hassles at an affordable cost. A recent study carried out by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) points out that medical tourism could be a US$1 billion business by 2012.

Today, patients from across the world, a majority of them from S Asian and West Asian countries flock to Indian hospitals for high-end treatments including heart surgery and knee replacement. The numbers can be gauged by the fact that one leading corporate hospital chain, which operates in 30 places across the country, alone has treated more than one lakh foreign tourists.

Clearly, high quality health care at affordable costs and English speaking doctors and medical staff have conspired to turn Indian into an attractive destination for getting medical treatment. Moreover, the easy availability of a medical visa (since 2005) has also contributed to the country’s popularity as a preferred medical tourism destination.

In recent years, it has also become the ‘hot favourite’ for fertility treatment. Given that it is safe and legal. Not only that. According to the Union Health Ministry, the cost of infertility treatment here is at least 25% cheaper than the cost of similar service in the USA and West Europe. For instance, while in the USA a surrogacy procedure carries a hefty price tag of US$ 50,000 in India it costs just US$10,000.

In fact, the Union Tourism Minister Ambika Soni is quite bullish about the prospects of medical tourism in the country. Asserted she, “As much as US$ 6.5 billion are in the pipeline for setting up affordable hospitals and budget hotels to support medical tourism.”

Further, an in-depth study by the Planning Commission has concluded that the superior quality of medical services along with the low cost of surgeries has made the country one of the most attractive destinations for medical value travel. The study points out that while a heart bypass surgery here would cost a patient just US$ 6000, the same procedure would cost US$ 7894 in Thailand, US$ 10,417 in Singapore and US$ 23,938 in the US.

Significantly, according to the Union Health Ministry the number of foreign tourists visiting the country for medical treatment has been going up by 20% every year. The long waiting period involved in getting diagnosed and treated in hospitals across the US and UK, has helped make India ‘fit’ for treatment. As the waiting period for patients to get checked and treated is quite negligible.

Stated two top cardiac and orthopedic practitioners, “The majority of our patients come from the US and Canada for serious cardiac or orthopedic surgeries. There is a minimum recuperation period for which the patient needs to stay in the country after the surgery.”

However, everything is not hunky dory for India’s booming medical tourism sector. Primarily, because there are a number of hurdles.  “Even though we are on par with any other country as far as medical facilities are concerned, our basic infrastructure needs to be developed for India to become the most coveted medical tourism destination,” said a CEO of a Bangalore hospital.

Besides this, the other barriers include lack of transparent world-wide data on the quality of health care, travel inconvenience and the desire to undergo medical procedures in familiar settings. Similarly, continuity of care is a major issue for those suffering from chronic ailments.

Moreover, it is not clear how well a multi-national approach can address this serious problem. “As they gear up to benefit from foreign patients, Indian hospitals  need to determine what steps they are willing to take to capture the potentially large upside of the medical travel sponsored by the third parties,” stated, a top executive of a multi-national company in New Delhi.

Presently, India lags behind Thailand, Singapore and Israel in terms of general infrastructure and the number of health tourists. However, with some fine-tuning, improved coordination and better image-building, India could very well emerge as one of the most preferred destinations of medical tourism in the economically booming Asia-Pacific region.

“Popular health-care tourism destinations such as Thailand and Singapore, first promoted their tourism potential and then health-care tourism. India is doing both simultaneously which would take sometime to work,” surmised the President of Association of Hospitals of Eastern India.

This apart, importantly, our ancient medi-care system of Ayurveda is gaining popularity in Western countries and is becoming a major component of medical tourism. In fact, much before the concept of medical tourism took off, a large number of Western tourists keen on getting rejuvenation therapies based on Ayurvedic principles used to visit the many Ayurvedic resorts in Kerala.

Taking a cue from the Kerala experience, other States including Karnataka and Uttarakhand have set-up Ayurvedic resorts to attract both domestic and foreign patients. Observed a holistic healthcare expert on yoga and ayurveda, “We need a bigger vision for the next 15-20 years rather than focusing on current issues. It could be an integrated facility, ranging from super-specialty to yoga, research and even IT (Information Technology) and BT (Bio-technology) research related to medicare.

Perhaps one of the little known advantages enjoyed by India’s corporate health-care sector being increasingly patronized by foreign patients is the rapid expansion of the satellite-based tele-medicine network. This was introduced in the country by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

A recent study by CII’s health-care services division states that our hospitals are now mainly frequented by patients from S Asian and West Asian countries, UK, East Africa and Uzbekistan. And in recent months, patients from New Zealand and Australia too have been finding India an ideal destination for getting treated at a very affordable cost. ---- INFA

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