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Medical tourism growing at 30% a year: Study

Shweta Rajpal Kohli in New Delhi

Indian private hospitals are increasingly finding a mention in the travel itineraries of foreigners, with the trend of medical tourism catching on in the country.

If industry estimated are to be believed, the size of the medical tourism industry stands at Rs 1,200-1,500 crore (Rs 12-15 billion), growing at the rate of 30 per cent.

A recent CII-McKinsey study on healthcare says medical tourism alone can contribute Rs 5,000-10,000 crore (Rs 50-100 billion) additional revenue for upmarket tertiary hospitals by 2012, and will account for 3-5 per cent of the total healthcare delivery market.

"Compared to countries like the UK or the US, minor treatments like those for dental problems or major procedures like bypass surgery or angioplasty come at a fraction of the cost in India, even though the quality of doctors and medical equipment is comparable to the best in the world," says K K Aggarwal, executive vice-chairman of the Heart Care Foundation of India.

A bypass surgery in India costs $2,000-5,000, while in the US it costs between $15,000 and $40,000.

No wonder corporate hospitals like Apollo and Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre are working towards capturing a larger share of the pie.

Escorts is in the process of arranging travel and lodging facilities for its overseas patients.

In less than two years, Escorts has doubled its number of overseas patients from 675 in 2000 to around 1,200 till date this year.

"Almost 10 per cent of our patients come from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and West Asia," Naresh Trehan, executive director of Escorts, said.

The Mohali-based Fortis Hospital has already entered into a mutual referrals arrangement with Partners Healthcare System, that has hospitals like Brigham Women's Hospital and Massachusetts Hospital, Boston, under its umbrella.

"We will soon launch a defined programme for the two-way flow of patients," Harpal Singh, chairman of Fortis, said.

The Apollo Hospitals Group is also holding discussions with the National Health Scheme, UK, to bring patients from the UK to India.

"The waiting period for surgeries such as knee replacement is too long in the UK. We are working on a plan for getting those patients to India," Yogi Mehrotra, managing director of Apollo Hospitals, said.

The hospital is also working on attracting patients from African countries and is in talks with the authorities concerned.

The Indian Healthcare Federation, an association of the healthcare delivery sector that includes the Apollo Hospitals Group, Mumbai's Hinduja Hospital, Max Healthcare, the Fortis Heart Institute among others, has also decided to project India as a healthcare destination.

Even travel agents are aggressively promoting India as a destination for medical tourism.

"This is a huge, untapped market, not just for therapeutic medical tourism like ayurveda, but also for curative treatment," says Deep Kalra, CEO of makemytrip.com, which is also working on medical tourism packages for non-resident Indians.

"The benefit to tourism could be in the order of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion)," said Kalra.

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