Medical Tourism India

Medical Tourism & International patients

The Indian healthcare market is Rs. 15 billion and growing at over 30% every year. Indian private hospitals are increasingly finding a mention in the travel itineraries of foreigners, with the trend of medical tourism catching up in the country. If industry estimates are to be believed, the size of the medical tourism industry stands at Rs 1,200 – Rs 1,500 crore (Rs. 12-15 billion). This is a huge, untapped market, not just for therapeutic medical tourism like ayurveda, but also for curative treatment. India can lead the world in medical and health tourism since we have a tremendous advantage with a large pool of skilled manpower and technological edge.

India as a Destination For Medical Tourism

The countries where medical tourism is being actively promoted include Greece, South Africa, Jordan, India, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. India is a recent entrant into medical tourism. The Indian government predicts that India’s $17-billion-a-year health-care industry could grow 13 per cent in each of the next six years, boosted by medical tourism, which industry watchers say is growing at 30 per cent annually. Price advantage is a major selling point. The slogan, thus is, “First World treatment’ at Third World prices”.

The cost differential across the board is huge: only a tenth and sometimes even a sixteenth of the cost in the West. India has a lot of hospitals offering world class treatments in nearly every medical sector. For long promoted for its cultural and scenic beauty, India is now being put up on international map as a heaven for those seeking quality and affordable healthcare. As Indian corporate hospitals are on par, if not better than the best hospitals in Thailand, Singapore, etc there is scope for improvement, and the country is becoming a preferred medical destination. In addition to the increasingly top class medical care, a big draw for foreign patients is also the very minimal or hardly any wait list as is common in European or American hospitals.

PEACE OF MIND

Read this article from Smart Travel Asia (December 2015)

Medical tourism in Asia….Yes, India can be a cheap and safe bet

Combine a holiday with an executive check-up, or surgery, in Thailand, Singapore, or India…..It won’t break the bank and doctors are good. Our guide.

Think of India, and images of ancient temples, tigers, call centres and the IT boom might jump to mind. Health care is also on the list. India has some excellent medical care providers, and foreign patients have been streaming in over the past decade. Accurate figures are hard to come by, but in 2014 an estimated 150,000 medical tourists were treated in India.
According to the Indian Department of Tourism, the average cost of healthcare in India is about one fifth that of the West, multi-organ transplants are done for a tenth the cost in the West and there is “zero waiting time”. A bone marrow transplant in India would cost around US$26,000 in India, compared to about US$250,000 in the US. Hip replacements are also popular (in the UK, patients often have to wait many months on national healthcare waiting lists before they can have the operation, or pay out of their own pocket at private institutions).

Cardiac care is one specialty that is drawing overseas patients to India. The Fortis Escorts Heart Institute (www.fortisescorts.in) in Delhi, formerly known as The Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, is a state-of-the-art heart institute. At Escorts, open-heart surgery costs around 200,000 Indian rupees (US$4,500), compared to around US$60,000 or more in USA. Like most international hospitals in Asia, the centre helps foreign patients with visa arrangements, airport pick-ups, accommodation, travel arrangements and other logistics
Other Indian hospitals that are treating increasing numbers of foreign patients are Jaslok Hospital (jaslokhospital.net) in Mumbai, which is highly regarded for heart procedures with a team of excellent doctors, Global Hospitals (patientcare.globalhospitalsindia.com/LKP/), a dedicated centre for multi-organ transplants also focusing on cardiology, liver diseases, oncology and haematology, in Hyderabad, and the well-regarded Dr LV Prasad Eye Institute (www.lvpei.org), a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for prevention of blindness – headquartered in Hyderabad, but with locations across India.

Dentistry also draws international patients to India, especially Hyderabad. The FMS DENTAL HOSPITALS Hyderabad (www.fmsdental.com) rechristined as Face Make over and Smile Clinics, has been providing dental services in the twin cities of Hyderabad – Secunderabad for over 20 years. Now with the induction of FMS International Dental Centre located at Jubilee Hills Hyderabad, the practice has expanded to 9 locations and has a team of over 100 dental specialists, many of whom have received international training. Overseas patients come from USA, UK, Gulf countries and from as far afield as Australia and New Zealand. Typically, international patients seek procedures such as dental implants, crowns, veneers and dentures. • So get a dental and eye check-up in Hyderabad and holiday in Goa.
Popular among foreigners living in India is the Max Healthcare group (www.maxhealthcare.in), which operates 11 hospitals across North India, including five in the Delhi-NCR (National Capital region) area. The hospital estimates they have received about a million international patients. Foreign patients are offered access to an International s desk, and the hospital is allied with health insurance providers around the world. • Some patients are drawn to India’s holistic approach to healing, where techniques like yoga and meditation are sometimes used alongside the latest medical techniques. Various city hospitals around India now have Ayurveda natural healing centres. One of these is the excellent Medanta Hospital (www.medanta.org), set up by one of India’s foremost heart surgeons, Dr Naresh Trehan. Each hospital has an ayurvedic health department as well as an offering of other natural healing options, including homeopathy
Grab a surgery and a holiday in India • The Wockhardt Hospitals Group (www.wockhardthospitals.com) has a chain of “super-speciality hospitals”, such as the Wockhardt Eye Hospital, Wockhardt Bone and Joint Hospital and Wockhardt Heart Hospital in Mumbai, and others in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Nagpur. The group has an association with Partners Medical International, who also develop programmes for Harvard Medical School affiliated teaching hospitals. • The Ruby Hospital (www.rubyhospital.com) in Calcutta, offers extensive services for international patients, and even has an exclusive “lifestyle” floor, The Enclave, housing private apartments with kitchenettes, computers with 24-hour Internet and TV and DVD.