Medical Tourism

By Atul Cowshish - Syndicate Features

It cannot be said if shifting the great Indian cricket 'tamasha' called the India Premier League to South Africa has sent a 'wrong' message which will see considerable drop in arrival of visitors from abroad, but what is certain is that the number of 'medical tourists' in India will continue to grow by leaps and bounds irrespective of IPL’s current or next venue.

That prediction is based on two premises. One, in a little over two years the figure of 'medical tourists' to India has jumped from about 200,000 a year to 450,000; two, the economic meltdown in the West (traditionally the richer part of the world) will force more and more less affluent patients to go abroad for medical treatment.

Actually, there is also a third factor: the long wait for treatment in public hospitals in most countries in the West. It can extend from a few months to a year or more.

Though India is not the only destination for these patients, it is certainly among the favourites. According to the healthcare researcher, Deloitte, Thailand is the top ‘medical’ destination with medical tourist arrivals far in access of one million a year. But the bulk of the 'medical tourists' who go to Thailand go in for cosmetic surgery. India receives patients who suffer from serious cardiac, neurological, orthopaedic and other serious problems that require surgery.

A testimonial to the skills and efficacy of the Indian surgeons comes from the fact that India records a death rate of 0.8 percent from coronary bypass surgery against 2.35 percent in the US. New techniques like robotic surgery and gamma-knife treatment for brain tumours are available in India. Though the equipment (surgical instruments) used in these treatments is not Indian, the men and women who use them have competence and have well-deserving reputation.

Aware that a Western patient arriving in India would not accept poor hygiene and sanitation in the hospital where he or she has to undergo treatment, a special body, the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals, has been set up which certifies the hygienic and other standards of hospitals. Many Indians see the top private hospitals in India as seven-star hotels, naturally with a matching tariff.

India has long been known for excellence in clinical and paramedical talent. It is often heard in India that, for instance, the National Health Service in the UK will collapse if its Indian doctors were to return home. Till the Indians became more famous for their computer and IT skills in America, they were also becoming a familiar face in the US healthcare sector.

It is all too obvious that the principal attraction in India is the relatively inexpensive treatment. A heart surgery in India can be about 10 percent of the cost in the US. The other day, the CNN did a feature on medical tourism in India, highlighting the case of a 61-year-old woman from Las Vegas, USA, Sandra Guistina, who had a heart surgery done at New Delhi’s Max hospital and appeared quite pleased with her decision to come to India.

The total cost for her treatment--and travel--was less than $10000. This was against the $175,000 that she would have paid in the US for similar treatment. A bonus for her was sightseeing in an exotic land with her spouse.

Both the private medical sector in India and the government are only too aware of the potential of medical tourism in India. The growth of this special variety of tourism in India—about 50 percent per annum at present--is almost assured for many years to come.

The government had some time ago launched a publicity drive to lure medical tourists, claiming that India was an attractive healthcare destination with the added advantage of being an even more attractive regular tourist destination. Brochures were prepared for worldwide distribution listing these attributes. The government had also decided to introduce a new category of visas—M or medical visa for the patient and MX visa for the patient’s spouse, both valid for one year.

It may be wrong to assume that government publicity drive plays a major role in attracting the medical or health tourist to India. It is the fame and the skills of the surgeons and the medical staff, plus the fact that some of the Indian hospitals are nearly as well equipped in terms of modern equipment as those in the West.

Of course, the US will always remain in the lead in the field of medical care, research and equipment. But that can be of little use to patients if they are forced to wait for months and years to avail of those facilities in their country.

If the high cost and long wait upsets patients in the rich West, there are also reasons why the growing business of medical tourism does not enthuse a lot of Indians who worry about the continued neglect of the public healthcare system in India. Most people in India tend to feel that this exists only in name, given the deplorable conditions in government hospitals and dispensaries.

It also looks ironic that while India is associated with a huge figure of patients with such deadly diseases as heart ailment, diabetes, cancer, tuberculosis and, of course, AIDS, the country is still regarded as a safe and better destination for medical tourist.

This lament is not a plea to discourage medical tourism but to point to the urgent need for improving the healthcare facilities for the 'aam admi' of the country. It is said that the 'seven-star' hospitals in India are obliged by law to render some free service to the needy. It is doubtful if they really do so. Recently, there were reports that one of the most famous private hospitals in Delhi was in danger of losing its licence because it refused to treat anyone who could not meet its prohibitive cost for treatment.

There is no reason why there should be no pressure in India for better health care facilities for the poor and the relatively less affluent, neither of whom resent the growth of medical tourism.

- Asian Tribune -