Prospects of medical tourism in India brightens

Medical tourism has gradually become a major source of revenue for India and has, today, climbed up the ladder to become a multi-million dollar industry.
It has been reported that the volume of business for this industry is expected to go up to nearly $6 billion by 2018, at present this is approximately $3-billion. As to the number of tourists arriving for medical treatment – it is now around 230,000 and is likely to increase to double within the next four years.
One of the main advantages is the low-cost involved in India where treatment is cheap when compared to abroad. Moreover, India has innumerable alternate options for treatment like Ayurveda, and Yunani.
In order to attract people from abroad, some Indian hospitals offer premiere treatment at reduced rates – this can, at times, be nearly 40 to 50 per cent less than what would be charged by any European or American country. An example is a heart bypass procedure – it can cost roughly $140,000 without any insurance in the US but the same procedure could cost around $7,000 or Rs 3 lakh at one of India’s leading surgery centers.
Similarly, a breast augmentation procedure that would cost $ 6,000 in the US can be done for $ 2,200 in India – hence, cosmetic surgery is also finding takers. Another advantage of getting cosmetic surgery done in India is that the patients would recuperate in private and no one at home would know that they had undergone a cosmetic surgery.
This trend has influenced several international pharmaceutical companies, Non Resident Indians (NRIs) and foreign investors to invest in multi-specialty hospitals in the country. Thereby, most of these hospitals are equipped with state-of-the art technology, hence, treatment of serious illnesses can be undertaken with ease.
To cater to such tourists a new breed of tour planners has evolved so that the patient does not have to struggle in an alien country. These tour planners extend personalized service of medical tour packages.
Their services consist of arranging appointments with concerned specialists at the selected hospital, making arrangements for escorting, transportation and accommodation as per the requirement of the patient, helping to obtain medical visa and preparing other documents as required by the health centers.
When required, the tour planners also go in for arranging sightseeing, local transportation, and shopping.
As per a latest report, India has found a place in the top three medical tourism destinations of Asia. This has been made possible due to the low cost of treatment, quality healthcare infrastructure and availability of highly-skilled doctors. India’s cost-effective medical treatments coupled with its high standards in branches of medicine like cardiology, orthopedics, nephrology, oncology and neuro surgery are attracting tourists.