–Yale Global
India is hoping to expand its tourist industry – to include visitors with heart conditions and cataracts. Indeed, medical tourism, where foreigners travel abroad in search of low cost, world-class medical treatment, is gaining popularity in countries like India . The field has such lucrative potential that Indian finance minister Jaswant Singh called for India to become a “global health destination.” And, with prices at a fraction of those in the US or Britain , the concept will likely have broad consumer appeal – if people can overcome their prejudices about health care in developing countries. Though the quality of health care for the poor in countries like India is undeniably low, private facilities offer advanced technology and procedures on par with hospitals in developed nations. One Indian hospital director maintains, "In a corporate hospital, once the door is closed you could be in a hospital in America .”
–The Economist
For someone about to undergo surgery to remove gallstones, David Potter, a 63-year-old Briton, is remarkably chipper. Pushing a walking-frame he hardly seems to need, he testifies to the success of an earlier operation, to replace a hip. Both are standard surgical procedures.
– Bloomberg Markets
Medical tourism is likely to be the next major foreign exchange earner for India as an increasing number of patients, unwilling to accept long queues in Europe or high costs in the US , are travelling to the country to undergo surgery, according to a media report.
Medical tourism is on the rise with more people from the United States , Europe and the Middle East seeking Indian hospitals as a cheap and safe alternative, says an article in an upcoming issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine.
The report says Indian doctors are setting up what could be a medical renaissance in their country and the next great boom for the Indian economy.
Many Indian hospitals are coming together to improve the quality of health care, boost first impressions and aiming for $2.3 billion in annual revenue by 2012, it says.
Instead of paying $2,00,000 for a mitral valve surgery in the US , a patient could travel to India and receive the same treatment for $6,700.
Similarly, rather than paying 15,000 pounds Sterling for hip resurfacing in the UK, a patient can get the same procedure for 5,000 pounds in India, including surgery, airfare and hotel stay, the magazine says.
Would you do it? Has a cheaper workforce enabled India to compete in a field many thought could never flourish in that country? These are the questions many people throughout the world have been asking themselves, and increasingly the answer is yes.
– CII and McKinsey Consultants
With an increasing number of foreign patients flocking to India for treatment, India could earn Rs.100 billion through 'Medical Tourism' by 2012, a study has indicated.
According to the study conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry and McKinsey consultants, last year some 150,000 foreigners visited India for treatment, with the number rising by 15 per cent a year.
With a large pool of highly trained doctors and low treatment cost, healthcare aims to replicate the Indian software sector's success. Built on acres of land the new sleek medical centres of excellence offer developed world treatment at developing world prices, a report in 'The Guardian' said today.
A number of private hospitals also offer packages designed to attract wealthy foreign patients, with airport-to-hospital bed car service, in-room internet access and private chefs. Another trend is to combine surgery in India with a yoga holiday or trip to the world famous Taj Mahal.
The report said it is not just cost but competency that is India 's selling point. Naresh Trehan, who worked as a heart surgeon in Manhattan but returned to start Escorts hospital group in India , was quoted as saying that his hospital in Delhi completed 4,200 heart operations last year
– CBC
What's called medical tourism – patients going to a different country for either urgent or elective medical procedures – is fast becoming a worldwide, multibillion-dollar industry.
The reasons patients travel for treatment vary. Many medical tourists from the United States are seeking treatment at a quarter or sometimes even a 10th of the cost at home. From Canada , it is often people who are frustrated by long waiting times. From Great Britain , the patient can't wait for treatment by the National Health Service but also can't afford to see a physician in private practice. For others, becoming a medical tourist is a chance to combine a tropical vacation with elective or plastic surgery.
And more patients are coming from poorer countries such as Bangladesh where treatment may not be available.
Medical tourism is actually thousands of years old. In ancient Greece , pilgrims and patients came from all over the Mediterranean to the sanctuary of the healing god, Asklepios, at Epidaurus . In Roman Britain, patients took the waters at a shrine at Bath , a practice that continued for 2,000 years. From the 18th century wealthy Europeans travelled to spas from Germany to the Nile . In the 21st century, relatively low-cost jet travel has taken the industry beyond the wealthy and desperate.
Countries that actively promote medical tourism include Cuba , Costa Rica , Hungary , India , Israel , Jordan , Lithuania , Malaysia and Thailand . Belgium , Poland and Singapore are now entering the field. South Africa specializes in medical safaris-visit the country for a safari, with a stopover for plastic surgery, a nose job and a chance to see lions and elephants.
–The Financial Times , 2 July 2003
India Fosters Growing 'Medical Tourism' Sector
Ray Marcelo
India is promoting the "high-tech healing" of its private healthcare sector as a tourist attraction.
The government hopes to encourage a budding trade in medical tourism, selling foreigners the idea of travelling to India for low-cost but world-class medical treatment.
Naresh Trehan, executive director of Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, a leading private healthcare provider, says India has established world-class expertise in practices such as cardiac care, cosmetic surgery, joint replacements and dentistry.
Merging medical expertise and tourism became government policy when finance minister Jaswant Singh, in this year's budget, called for India to become a "global health destination".
If foreigners respond, a new medical tourism industry could be generating revenues of Rs100bn ($2.1bn, €1.9bn, £1.3bn) by 2012, according to a report by McKinsey Consultants and the Confederation of Indian Industry, a business group.
There is no doubt that the Indian medical industry's main appeal is low-cost treatment. Most estimates claim treatment costs in India start at around a tenth of the price of comparable treatment in America or Britain .
For example, in April Madras Medical Mission , a Chennai-based hospital, successfully conducted a complex heart operation on an 87-year-old American patient at a reported cost of $8,000 (€7,000, £4,850) including the cost of his airfare and a month's stay in hospital. The patient claimed that a less complex operation in America had earlier cost him $40,000.
Other procedures such as diagnostic services offer significant cost-savings.
Take the rising popularity of "preventive health screening". At one private clinic in London a thorough men's health check-up that includes blood tests, electro-cardiogram tests, chest x-rays, lung tests and abdominal ultrasound costs £345 ($574, €500). By comparison, a comparable check-up at a clinic operated by Delhi-based healthcare company Max Healthcare costs $84.
Yet cost-savings may not be enough to foster a trade in medical tourism. Unfairly or not, most foreigners would not think of India as a land of good health.
The sight of the country's overcrowded public hospitals, open sewers and garbage-littered streets would unsettle most visitors' confidence about public sanitation standards in India .
Private healthcare providers argue that foreigners can be sheltered from such nastiness, and that the quality of India 's corporate hospitals are world-class. "In a corporate hospital, once the door is closed you could be in a hospital in America ," says P.V.R.K. Prasad, director-general of the Dr Marri Channa Reddy Human Resource Development Institute.
Vishal Bali, vice-president of Wockhardt Hospitals, points out as proof of quality that the US private health insurers Blue Cross and Blue Shield insure patients treat-ed at his group's hospitals.
The British health insurer Bupa also insures the costs of treatment at Wockhardt hospitals.
Mr Bali adds that Wockhardt is in talks with Britain's National Health Service about outsourcing the treatment of British patients to India.
According to Hari Prasad, vice-president of Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad , foreigners should have confidence in India 's medical system because many Britons and Americans are accustomed to being treated by expatriate Indian doctors.
In any case, most private healthcare providers hold modest ambitions about which foreign patients would come to India seeking treatment.
For instance, of the 5,200 hospital beds run by the Apollo hospital group, about 100 beds are usually occupied by foreign patients, mostly from the Middle East, Africa and countries of south Asia .
Indeed, demand for medical tourism is most likely to come from among the 20m-strong Indian diaspora, says Deep Kalra, chief executive officer of travel agency makemytrip.com.
Mr Kalra says wealthy first- and second-generation expatriate Indians are aware of the rise of India's high quality, low-cost hospitals.
He estimates there is a potential market of some 12m expatriate Indians who would combine regular visits to India and save time and money by undergoing non-emergency procedures such as eye operations, dental work, cosmetic surgery and knee surgery. Mr Kalra's agency plans to launch a medical tourism package later this year.
Still, some remain sceptical about medical tourism's potential. Sumanjit Chaudhry, an executive at India's Max Healthcare group, says: "I imagine if someone is sick and ill they won't want to have a holiday. You'll hardly see a guy who comes here for heart surgery leaping off and going to the beach."
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