A Visit To Taj With A Bypass Surgery Thrown In

Medical tourism is a booming phenomenon in countries like India, Malaysia, Mexico, Israel, Singapore among others. This sector has shown immense potential in the last few years, and has been hailed as the biggest revenue raking factor for any country that is willing to relax its rules and policies making things easier for those who are visiting a country as a tourist who wants to fix a thing or two in his/her body.

Namaste India
With all its cultural contradictions, what makes an ancient country India a hot destination for medical tourists? It’s booming education sector, which produces doctors who are never in scarce, and the surge of multi-specialty hospitals which have the best of equipments, and of course India’s own pharma sector is ever expanding. Compared to west (especially the UK and USA) costs in India are never a prohibitive for someone who has to undergo a major surgery. An unlikely aspect which needs further regulation is that of donors, who are never in short supply. No waiting period makes things easier for an American or a European choose India over other countries.

And then for those in search of alternate medicines, India is a land of indigenous knowledge on herbs, spices, oils and the combination of these curing a lot of ailments which according to modern medicine would require intervention. Now, it’s not a bad idea to find some real time solution for that bad back, or that skull-numbing migraine while sipping on tender coconut water the serene backwaters of Kerala, with Yoga regimes thrown in, isn’t it?

Medical tourism in India has different shades to it. While considering modern medicine alone, given the fact that most people would rush to India in time for a surgery, the costs are to be taken into account. No matter how ‘courteous’ US has been with its healthcare bill, making health accessible to majority of the people in the US, the costs in India are still much cheaper. And the post-surgery care with medicines, just as good! Because, India has been increasingly adhering to international quality standards with ISO certification and regular auditing of the systems and medical records in hospitals suiting all budgets.
So, it’s a no surprise that the foreign tourists who choose India for orthopedic and cardiac surgeries rave about its seven star facilities in hospitals. The country has been surely putting its growing population to good use by training them in medical and paramedical jobs, with no dearth of caregivers in its hospitals.

How Big Can it Get?
The rising popularity of India turning into a hot medical tourism destination, with an average stay of a patient/tourist being 30 days and above, is in the statistics. According to Confederation of Indian Industries, 150,000 medical tourists visited India in 2005. This was despite little or no marketing efforts from the Indian government and hospitals. It was a purely driven by person-to-person recommendation of a particular hospital or facilities.

In 2008, the numbers had grown steadily, touching a 200,000 milestone of those many people having visited India for various surgeries. Soon, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) began to collate the data and declared 850,000 medical tourists had visited the country in 2011. Anticipation is that the numbers may well touch 3,200,000 by 2015. Majority of these tourists came to Indian shores seeking liver transplant, heart surgeries like bypass or pacemaker, bone marrow transplant, hip replacement, knee replacement, eye surgeries, etc. Indian expertise in conducting these surgeries with most advanced technology is at par or sometimes even beyond comparison with its American or European counterparts.

Business is not all that it matters for India as far as medical tourism is concerned. The country on one hand is tapping its potential for being a health destination among developed nations. And on the other, it is also using it for establishing values such as secularism too. Pediatric patients in need of good medical attention and their families cross borders of Pakistan and Afghanistan regularly, to be treated with equal amount of love, care and affection in Indian hospitals. Years ago, a Bangalore based hospital made headlines for treating a young Pakistani girl, and built quite a few bridges across hearts in both the countries.

The biggest beneficiary from all this is the average US/UK citizen who wants a surgery done within his affordability because in his own country, it would cost at least ten times more. While total addressable global health tourism is pitted at $150 billion, India so far has been able to access only about a billion or so. But these numbers are surely expected to grow in the coming days as the medical tourism is expected to grow at 30% annually till 2015. Beyond that, it will take sustained efforts and better marketing strategies for India to remain on the global health tourism market.

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