Articles on Medical Tourism India

This section hosts the latest and important articles on Medical Tourism India. These articles will give an insight on the trends in Medical Tourism India. The articles comprise of news articles, news clippings, general articles and medical articles.

List of articles on Medical Tourism India

• Medical Tourism: India is the Favorable Destination in the World - RNCOS Market Report

• India’s cost-effective and efficient medical sector has made it a favored destination for healthcare - India’s Health Minister Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss

• Indian government starts issuing M (medical) visa to the medical patients, and MX visas to the accompanying spouse, which are valid for a year - Union Minister for Tourism

• How a UK medical tourist saved about £14,000 for a surgery in India

Medical Tourism: India is the Favorable Destination in the World - RNCOS Market Report

Medical Tourism: India is the Favorable Destination in the World
The concept of Medical Tourism India refers to visit by overseas patients for medical treatment and relaxation. The opportunities in Indian Healthcare sector in medical infrastructure and technology are just as good as those in the West.

/24-7PressRelease/ - New Delhi, India, July 28, 2006 - As Indian healthcare sector develops, a new term has been coined called 'Medical Tourism', which is the process of people from all corners of the world visiting India to seek medical and relaxation treatments. The most common treatments sought are heart surgery, knee transplant, cosmetic surgery and dental care.

According to research reports on Indian Healthcare sector, the medical tourism market is valued to be worth over $310 million with foreign patients coming by 100,000 every year, and the market is predicted to grow to $2 billion by 2012.

Medical tourists choose India as their favorable destination because of the key opportunities in Indian healthcare sector in the form of efficient infrastructures and technology. The health insurance market and National medical systems here are well developed, which is convenient for visitors from the West and the Middle East. They also find the hospital expenses very affordable.

RNCOS in its market research report, "Opportunities in Indian Healthcare Sector" finds that 120,000 overseas patients came to India in 2005 for medical treatment and this is expected to expand by 30%. The healthcare industry overview shows that the medical infrastructure and technology in this country is in par with those in USA, UK and Europe. India can vie with some of its best hospitals and treatment centers in the world, and therefore make it a favorable destination.

The market research report addresses the following critical issues and facts:

• The merging trends in the Indian health care sector
• The key regulations and policy environment in the healthcare industry
• The future scenario of the healthcare market in India
• The key players in the health care market in India
• The opportunities that exist for the healthcare market
• The challenges faced by the Indian healthcare industry
• Other economic factors affecting the Indian health care market

RNCOS' report is based on extensive research that provides objective analysis of India's healthcare sector performance. The report would be helpful for clients in analyzing the opportunities prevailing and critical for the growth of this market. It will also help investors who can refer to the detailed data and analysis on the changing dynamics of the healthcare industry.

Source - 24-7PressRelease - RNCOS Market Report

India’s cost-effective and efficient medical sector has made it a favored destination for healthcare - India’s Health Minister

Government pushes medical tourism in India
NEW DELHI (ICNS) -- India’s Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss says country’s cost-effective and efficient medical sector has made it a favored destination for healthcare.

Dr. Ramadoss, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, said this while releasing the Incredible India Brochure on Medical Tourism August 30. The Indian systems of medicine like Ayurveda, Yoga, Panchakarma, Rejuvenation Therapy are among the most ancient systems of medical treatment, of the world, he said.

Southern states of India, especially, Kerala has developed Health Tourism as one of the products for the promotion of tourism in Kerala. He said most hotels and resorts are coming up with the spas and Ayurveda Centers as an integral part in Kerala. India has an international reputation of being a knowledge-based economy.” The available talent base of over 500,000 doctors and seven 700,000 nursing professionals, India can provide Medical and Health care of international standard at comparatively low cost, he said.

Many surgical procedures are available at one-tenth the cost of those in developed countries and “there is no waiting period for elective surgery, he added. However, he said the situation should not make authorities neglect the healthcare for Indians. There are many areas in which public healthcare needs to advance in order that India’s workers can be a productive force for the global economy. He minister said nearly 80 per cent of spending on healthcare is now in the private sector. India’s pharma sector has done commendable work in bringing low-cost essential drugs to the market, including international markets, the Minister said.

Ambika Soni, Minister for Tourism & Culture, emphasized that there is a need to promote India as the new emerging Medical Value Travel destination abroad. She said the private and public hospitals need to synergize their efforts to promote India as the Healthcare destination worldwide. The Healthcare Industry will also have to standardize their processes and make its functioning more transparent and accountable, she said.

She further said that India’s healthcare sector has emerged as the largest in the service sector. Indians now spend over Rs. 1, 00,000 Crore a year on healthcare, and the sector contributes 6.2 percent to the GDP. Experts project that by 2012, it will contribute 8 percent to the GDP and employ 9 million people.

But one of the many challenges it faces is to provide good quality, affordable healthcare to all. For this, there is a need to reduce inequalities, imbalances that exist between regions, cities and villages and different socioeconomic groups. The Minister said that India has done exceptionally well in the last three years in the tourism sector, with overseas footfalls expanding at near 20% average every year.

By January this year, 3.3 million travelers had already visited India, spending close to $ 5 billion. The domestic travel is also witnessing rapid growth. Some 368 million Indians are venturing out of their homes, based on rising incomes, lower aviation costs, and more leisure time. The World Travel and Tourism Council has forecast that tourism will grow at a rapid rate of 8.8% per year for the next ten years, the highest in the world. The Industry is projected to attract a capital investment of $21 billion by 2014, up from about $10.2 billion estimated in 2004, according to a WTTC survey.

Equally significant is the impact this growth will have on employment. The travel and tourism industry already accounts for one of every nine job opportunities created in India, currently aggregating over 20 million employees. It is estimated that this industry generates more jobs per unit investment than any other sector, she added. - August 31, 2006.

Source - Indian Catholics News

Indian government starts issuing M (medical) visa to the medical patients, and MX visas to the accompanying spouse, which are valid for a year - Union Minister for Tourism

Medical tourism on the rise in India
31 August, 2006 0104hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: With around one million tourists flocking to India for healthcare, a Rs 10,000 crore medical travel value expected by 2010, and a growth of 25% per year, medical tourism is booming like never before.

Union minister for tourism, Ambika Soni said the government is aggressively promoting India as a global healthcare destination to offer a holistic approach to health.She was speaking at the release of the Incredible India Brochure on Medical Tourism, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Indian Healthcare Federation (IHF) here on Wednesday.

Seeing the huge potential in the sector, the government has also started issuing M (medical) visa to the medical patients, and MX visas to the spouse accompanying him, which are valid for a year.Two lakh medical tourists visited India last year, and the figure will grow by 50% this year.

India is being promoted as a healthcare destination in the ongoing 'Incredible India campaign,' being run by the tourism ministry. Soni said the campaign would promote Indian hospitals abroad as centers offering best medical services. In addition, availing medical services in India costs about a tenth of what it is in US, and one-sixth in UK.Not only this, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals (NABH), a body set up to ensure safety and hygiene norms for hospitals, has already started the process of granting accreditation with 70 hospitals in the process of getting approval, chairman of CII's national committee on healthcare, Dr Naresh Trehan said.

Dr Trehan said India now offers the latest techniques such as robotic surgery, and gamma-knife treatment for brain tumors. The efficacy of treatment compares with that in the West, with the death rate from coronary bypasses at 0.8% compared to 2.35% in the US. Union health minister A Ramadoss stated the government is considering the Clinical Establishment Bill that would mandate accreditation for hospitals down to the district and village levels.

Source - The Times of India - Indiatimes

An article from 'The Guardian'

This UK patient avoided the NHS list and flew to India for a heart bypass. Is health tourism the future?
Three months ago George Marshall fretted about the choice offered by his doctor in Britain. Diagnosed with coronary heart disease, the violin repairer from Bradford was told he could either wait up to six months for a heart bypass operation on the National Health Service or pay £19,000 to go under the scalpel immediately.

In the end, Mr Marshall chose to outsource his operation to India. Last month he flew 5,000 miles to the southern Indian city of Bangalore where surgeons at the Wockhardt hospital and heart institute took a piece of vein from his arm to repair the thinning arteries of his heart. The cost was £4,800, including the flight.

"Everyone's been really great here. I have been in the NHS and gone private in Britain in the past, but I can say that the care and facilities in India are easily comparable," says Mr Marshall, sitting in hospital-blue pajamas. "I'd have no problem coming again."

The 73-year-old found the hospital in Bangalore after a few hours surfing the internet. Mr Marshall decided to come after an email conversation with Wockhardt's vice-president and a chat with other "medical tourists" from Britain who had undergone surgery in the hospital.

"Once I knew others had come I thought, why not? In Europe hospitals in Germany and Belgium would do the operation for less than doctors in Britain. But Europe was still more expensive than here. And the staff speak English in India."

With patients such as Mr Marshall willing to travel across the globe to get treatment sooner or more cheaply than they could at home, Indian hospital groups see a huge market for their services. This was an article on The Guardian - UK.


Original Article on 'The Guardian'