An Uzbek patient B. S. Sayitkulov (62) expressed his feeling after open-heart surgery at Delhi's Escorts Heart Institute that " Doctors, surgeons and nurses in India are the most professional in the world. I could not have received the treatment and care I got at Escorts in Moscow or London." According to Dr. Trehan of Escort's " Life-saving heart care is just one of the many comparative advantages India has." Today, the entire SAARC region, Afghanistan and CIS countries look at India as a destination for cardiology, orthopedics, cosmetic treatments, eye care, dentistry and other specialties.
As per CII-McKinsey's stated in 2001 that India's medical tourism potential between $1.48 billion and $2 billion by 2012. India received close to 2lakh foreign patients in 2006 and IHCF (Indian Healthcare Federation, an industry association) members earned revenue of about $335 million, says Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals. " There is 30-35% year-on-year growth in number of foreign patient arrivals.
Wockhardt treated 2000 foreign patients, 80 percent of whom were from US and UK. Most of them are patient of coronary angiography, angioplasty andstenting, brain surgery for abnormal blood vessels, corrective skull surgeries and neuro-muscular disorders, among others.
Forties Healthcare treated an average of 400 foreign patients a month in its dozen facilities. Majority of them from the developing countries, but a growing number from the developed world. Forties plans to have 35-40 hospitals by 2010, with primary focus on the domestic market, but with the medical tourist in mind as well.
In Bangalore, Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty's Narayana Hriduyalaya has become a global destination for pediatric heart surgeries.
A cardiac procedure costs anywhere between $40,000 and $60,000 in the US, $30,000 in Singapore, $12,000-15,000 in Thailand and only $3,000-6,000 in India. The overall success rate of cardiac bypass in India is said to be 98.7 percent, compared to 97.5 percent in the US.
In eye care ,for example, India has state-of-the-art facilities such as Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai, Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai and LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad. "In ophthalmology, I can say with cofidence that our facilities and therapies are as good as those of the developed world. Moreover, our pricing doesn't discriminate between Indian and foreign patients," says Dr Lingam Gopal, Chairman-elect of non-profitSankara Nethralaya, whose 265-bed facilities in Chennai and Kolkata attracted about 5,000 foreign patients in the first half of 2006.
Trehan points out that Indian healthcare providers are already seeking tie-ups with health insurance companies in the developed world. "Very soon you will see insurers in the US and the UK offering people policies that give them the option of seeking elective therapies and surgeries in countries like India, cutting their own costs and giving us a growing stream of healthcare tourists."
Medical tourism is now the talisman attracting big money and big business in to India's healthcare. Almost all existing players in healthcare are in various stages of implementing their expansion plans.
India has already introduced special medical visas (called m-visa) to fast-track entry. "Their is nothing new about medical tourism. Earlier Indians would go to the US or the UK for treatment. Now we want Americans and Britons to come to India.
