medical tourism in india

Posted by : Unknown Thursday, 1 May 2014

medical tourism in india

Medical tourism is a growing sector in India. India’s medical tourism sector is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 30%, making it a $2 billion industry by 2015.An estimated 150,000 of these travel to India for low-priced healthcare procedures every year.

Confederation of Indian Industry reported that 150,000 medical tourists came to India in 2005, based on feedback from the organization's member hospitals. The number grew to 200,000 by 2008. A separate study by ASSOCHAM reported that the year 2011 saw 850,000 medical tourists in India and projected that by 2015 this number would rise to 3,200,000.

India is widely known for its advanced medicine services and advanced equipment. Doctors tend to be highly trained due to large medical tourism cities like Chennai and Noida, Delhi having foreign patients fill half their hospital beds. Also, the language barrier is lower for English speakers, and Indian hospitals are bringing in translators for non-English speaking foreigners. Health care costs in India can run as low as ten cents on the dollar compared to the US or the UK. Popular treatments include bone-marrow transplants, eye surgery and hip grafting and replacement. India is also a top destination for cardiac bypass surgery at facilities like the Asian Heart Institute; the procedure can cost less than $10,000 as compared to more than $100,000 in the west. There are 18 JCI accredited hospitals in India

The city of Chennai has been termed India's health capital. Multi- and super-specialty hospitals across the city bring in an estimated 150 international patients every day. Chennai attracts about 45 percent of health tourists from abroad arriving in the country and 30 to 40 percent of domestic health tourists. Factors behind the tourists inflow in the city include low costs, little to no waiting period, and facilities offered at the specialty hospitals in the city. The city has an estimated 12,500 hospital beds, of which only half is used by the city's population with the rest being shared by patients from other states of the country and foreigners. Dental clinics have attracted dental care tourism to Chennai.