Medical Tourism is one of the most promising sectors of our economy, as mentioned by our Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, during the 75th Independence Day speech.
Our traditional healing methods, especially Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha practices, are getting their due recognition globally.
The Government of India's "Heal in India' is a major step in this direction. Soon, India will be issuing an 'Ayush Visa' to enable foreigners to visit and seek traditional treatments in India.
Foreign patient footfalls have returned to pre-pandemic levels across major hospital chains in India, signalling a boost to the medical tourism market, Business Standard reports. Fortis Healthcare COO Anil Vinayak says that the hospital chain currently receives around 2,800 to 3,000 international patients per month, accounting for more than 10% of its total revenue. Medical tourism in India, currently valued at $6 billion, is expected to grow to $13 billion by 2026, according to estimates by the Medical Value Travel Council. Foreigners choose India mainly due to lower cost of treatment, says Dr. Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director at Apollo Hospitals. India mostly receives patients from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Mauritius, Nigeria, Kenya, and Ethiopia.
Medical Tourism in developing countries such as #india , #thailand , #malaysia , #indonesia , #vietnam etc has not only a great economic potential but also all these countries have a historical heritage of Holistic Industries traditional medicine, that needs to be incorporated-integrated inn their #medical_tourism_hospitals, currently offering at a cheaper and easily accessible health care, sadly copied from hospitals in developed countries.
Here the opportunity, call it a social responsibility, is to help medical tourists normally the wealthy from richer countries, for example the Middle East as well the growing numbers from developed countries. Imagine modern medical tourism included holistic wellbeing programs that enhance integrated explicit efforts to enhance physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing in environments of lush Nature, all relevant to a foundation extending health span and life span, including immunity.
Travel and Tourism industry has the greatest potential the greatest potential to empower sustainable lifestyles, a prerequisite to achieving sustainable development in harmony with Nature. The Pandemic has been an awakening to rethink and reset the future of tourism. Sadly, the efforts are focussed on “Greening Destination – Resorts and Hotels” whereas the imperative is to “Green Tourists” to experience and adopt holistic wellbeing and lifestyle, also relevant to enhancing respect for the world’s wealth of human diversity
Developing countries, you have the potential to create a sustainable humane world for all in harmony with Nature. And that needs transforming Modern lifestyles driven by materialism, greed, and power, which has been the norm in developed countries and now being copied by the rich in developing countries as well.
Various factors determine the influx of patients to a particular country, some of them being - cost effectiveness, insurance coverage, trusted healthcare system, etc. Also, GST is charged on these procedures and some countries return the GST once the patient leaves the country. It is interesting to note that hair transplant in Turkey contributes significantly to their economy in terms of medical tourism.
Since a few decades, surgical and non-surgical medical procedures have formed a major portion of the medical tourism industry.
India has been a country that has attracted patients from around the world for different treatments, medical procedures being one of them.
These procedures are not covered by any insurance companies across the globe, hence, India being a cost-effective country with a trusted healthcare system, can become an obvious choice in the years to come, for those aspiring to get quality medical treatments done.
Safety is a big concern since even untrained professionals have been performing high-risk procedures under the garb of “economical procedures”.
We need the Government and other health care leaders to step in and regularize this thriving industry and put a check on the unqualified surgeons and specialists performing these specialized medical procedures!
Government intervention in the regularization of the medical industry would indeed help the industry thrive, and also bring about a major economic contribution in the form of medical tourism.
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