MUMBAI -
India has always lured its fair share of tourists, drawn
to the country's awe-inspiring temples, breathtaking
scenery and rich culture. But a relatively new
attraction is gaining ground on the travel scene -
medical tourism.
India has the potential to
welcome over a million medical tourists annually, says
the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Should this
aim become a reality, a study by the CII released this
month says medical tourists could enrich India's economy
by US$5 billion.
Cautious dissenters say such
projections are more premature than improbable. But this
fast-growing trend is already taking over in Asia, with
governments, corporate bodies, hospitals and tourism
businesses joining forces to hail medical tourism as
Asia's next sunrise industry.
After targeting
niche markets such as eco-tourism, heritage tourism and
agro-tourism, countries such as India, Thailand,
Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines are each
ardently aiming to become Asia's medical tourist hub.
With governmental support, cautious and
sometimes clumsy marketing, trade tours and networked
nodal organizations, Asia's cheaper medical costs are
being clubbed with conventional tourism packages for
out-station patients and escorting family members.
The CII study estimated that "heart surgery in
the US costs $30,000, while it costs $6,000 in India.
Bone marrow transplants cost $250,000, while they are
$26,000 in India." Figures vary, but a general rule of
thumb puts the difference in costs of services in the
West at one-fifth to one-tenth. It is this disparity on
which India is trying to capitalize.
"Medical
tourism is not new to India," Dr Lloyd Nazareth, general
manager of Wockhardt Hospital, told Asia Times Online.
"Foreign and non-resident Indian [NRI] patients have
been coming to India for the past 25 years. But the
difference is that it was not structured as it is being
done now."
This new structure has hospitals,
airlines, governments, tour operators and car rental
businesses coordinating to offer tourists a package deal
that could include medical costs, hotel tariffs,
airfares, airport pickup and tours to nearby popular
tourist spots.
The government of Maharashtra, of
which Mumbai is capital, has collaborated with the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry
(FICCI) to form a council to boost medical tourism - the
Medical Tourism Council of Maharashtra (MTCM). The
830-bed Wockhard Hospital in Mumbai is part of a
nine-month old initiative by the MTCM.
The
homepage of the MTCM web site describes its Gamma PET
Scan for cancer patients, sitting alongside touted
glories of the Murud beach resort and Mahabaleshwar hill
town in Maharashtra. The FICCI said that the MTCM web
site had "all the details". But jumbled up addresses of
hotels and tour operators on the web site (including an
unusual spelling of the word "docctors") and missing
contact details ensures that, for now, prospective
medical tourists visiting the site will find little
about the quality of service of which the FICCI waxed
eloquent.
Oberoi Towers in Mumbai, part of the
Oberoi luxury hotel chain, was listed as a member of
MTCM. But this was news to Oberoi Towers. Priya D'Cunha
of Oberoi's marketing department told Asia Times Online
they had no idea they were part of any medical tourism
council.
Such sloppy communication mishaps
apart, the FICCI and the CII involvement signifies how
seriously corporate India is taking medical tourism. The
FICCI, with more than 500 industry members, represents
over 250,000 businesses and 20 million jobs.
"India can be the medical tourism capital of the
world," Pritam Pandya, director of FICCI (Western India
region) told Asia Times Online. He says India's
advantages include the prevalence of English speakers,
highly qualified medical professionals and diverse
tourism options.
"A Pandora's box," Pandya
responded when asked how medical tourism and
dollar-doling hordes would affect domestic patients.
Would foreign medical patients chasing relatively
cheaper costs make quality medical service unaffordable
for resident Indians?
Pandya says medical
tourism funds will trickle down to improve healthcare
infrastructure and services in rural areas, where over
65% of Indians live. "In any case, I do not see medical
tourism expanding at more than 2% to 4% annually for
now. So there is little likelihood of the 140,000
medical tourists presently coming to India shooting up
by 10 times in the near future."
Hospitals say
there is little reason to fear medical tourism. "Costs
will come down," Anupam Verma, a director of the Hinduja
Hospitals, Mumbai, told Asia Times Online. "A ballpark
figure of 500 to 700 medical tourists daily use
facilities in Mumbai. But since most big hospitals here
are run by non-profit charitable trusts, medical tourism
will feed infrastructure."
Domestic patients
will not run out of hospital beds, assures Verma.
"Currently, 30% capacity of private hospitals is not
utilized, and this can be offered to medical tourists."
Dr Nazareth of Wockhardt feels that with many
corporates such as Apollo, Fortis, Max, Wockhardt and
Escorts entering the medical services industry,
infrastructure is bound to expand. The World Health
Organization estimates that India must add at least
80,000 hospital beds annually for the next five years to
meet growing demand.
Wockhardt, Dr Nazareth
says, charges the same fee for foreign and domestic
patients, and he, too, believes a large inflow of
foreign tourists will not affect local patients. "Our
primary concern now is working out a strong
accreditation system for hospitals to ensure uniform,
quality standards of service with a transparent fee
structure," he says.
A lack of accreditation is
a major roadblock in drawing patients from abroad,
however, most corporate hospitals are already in the
process of upgradation and accreditation. Rating
agencies like Crisil and the Indian Credit Rating Agency
have graded a few hospitals for setting standards, but
certification also needs to come from international
agencies like the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
International Standards. While accreditation from an
international body such as the Joint Commission
International facilitates better response from Europe
and the US, recognition from the National Health
Services ensures international standards in terms of
patient care, quality improvement and patient safety.
Other Indian states have begun dipping into the
medical tourism porridge. In south India, the Tamil Nadu
Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) and Apollo
Hospitals cut a deal giving TTDC tourists a 15% discount
for healthcare check-ups in any Apollo center in India.
The Apollo group alone has so far treated 95,000
international patients, many of whom are of Indian
origin, and is even looking to partner with hospitals in
other countries. "We've just entered into a partnership
to provide operational management services to
Lagos-based Hygeia Nigeria, one of the largest
healthcare groups in west Africa," said Apollo group
vice president Dr Hari Prasad. "We've also bagged a
project consultant job for a 100-bed multi-speciality
hospital in Ghana. Projects in Kuwait , Yemen, Sudan,
Ethiopia, UAE [United Arab Emirates], and even
Bangladesh, Nepal and Malaysia are also at various
stages of association."
In eastern India,
government-owned domestic carrier Indian Airlines has
teamed up with leading city hospitals in Kolkata to give
air passengers a 30% discount on diagnostic and
therapeutic services in city hospitals.
Road
shows are lending to the cause too. The FICCI and the
Federation of Indian Exporters Organization visited
Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia in August to showcase
medical facilities in India, countries whose governments
are also keenly wooing medical tourists.
"If you
look at larger perspective of medical tourism in Asia,"
says Verma of Hinduja Hospitals, "countries such as
India, Singapore, Thailand etc can complement each
other."
But there is a flip side to medical
tourism. Government and basic medical insurance, and
sometimes extended medical insurance, often do not pay
for medical procedures, meaning the patient has to pay
cash. There is little follow-up care, and the patient
usually is in hospital for only a few days, and then
goes on the vacation portion of the trip or returns
home. Complications, side-effects and post-operative
care are then the responsibility of the medical care
system in the patient's home country. Most of the
countries that offer medical tourism have weak
malpractice laws, so the patient has little recourse to
local courts or medical boards if something goes wrong.
Regardless, India is pushing ahead and has big
hopes for its medical tourism industry. The next five
years will tell if Verma and his colleagues are building
an Asian medical facility sans frontier - or letting
hidden devils out of Pandora's box.
Raja
M is an independent writer based in Mumbai,
India.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online
Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.
