Bangalore can be the next big thing in healthcare

Bangalore’s health sector is on a par with global standards with the best medical practitioners, state-of-the-art infrastructure and technologically advanced equipment. Yet, it is always second to cities like Chennai and Mumbai. Experts from the medical fraternity converge at DNA to tell us how Bangalore can be the health hub of tomorrow.

How big is Bangalore as a medical hub?

Dr Jawali: Over the last 20 years, Bangalore’s health care facility has seen tremendous growth. Today, Bangalore has the credit of performing the highest number of cardiac surgeries in India with over 30% of paediatric cardiac surgeries. And over a period of time, the city has evolved as a home for minimally invasive cardiac surgery. The reverse brain drain phenomenon has brought in highly qualified professionals from abroad to work here. After the IT-BT boom, now it is the turn of the health industry.

Dr Gopinath: Bangalore is already a medical hub. What we lack today is just the need to package and market it in the right way. The city has been attracting patients from all over the world. We now need to be more disease specific and differentiate between the areas that we excel in and those which need more attention and then take action accordingly.

Dr Jayaram: The strides that we have taken in medical advancement in Bangalore over the last two decades have been impressive. We are on a par with any metro city, not only in India but globally too. Take for example cardiac science, where we are among the best in the world. But I won’t say that we have achieved equally across the board. There are areas which need to be refined and improved upon. There is a need for the medical community and licensing authorities to sit down and analyse the fields where we still underserve and work on these medical specialties or sub specialties. While earlier we were city-specific, the cosmopolitan nature of the city, climate and the expats residing here have been attracting many people from abroad to seek treatment here.

What is the scope of medical tourism in Bangalore? What needs to be done to make the city the next big health hub?

Dr Shetty: Medical tourism has a lot of scope in Bangalore, with many patients from around the world looking towards India with the realisation that it offers quality health care at affordable prices. However, compared to Chennai and Mumbai, our city is still lagging behind when it comes to attracting patients. Now it is time we highlight and market the fact that treatment in Bangalore is value for money. We get a lot of patients from the Gulf and what they pay us is just 25% of the cost of treatment in their country. There are also many NRIs who seek treatment here as for them it is a pleasure trip  home in addition to the affordable treatment. Now that we have a lot of patients coming in, there is need for emphasis on the marketing and packaging of medical tourism.

Dr Jayaram: Enlarging the health connectivity is the need of the hour. There has been a haphazard growth of medical institutions in the city. Also, trauma care should be linked to traffic connectivity and in this we could use a hint from some Indian cities too.

Dr Vasishta: We need legislation and the infrastructure for more people to come in and recognise us. More people have to invest in this sector. If we have the Government Medical Council and various medical associations working together in a comprehensive way equivalent of what we have in some parts of Europe, this will encourage more startups.

Dr Prasad: Statistics show that nearly seven lakh people came in from the US for treatments in 2007. The numbers came close to a million the following year. Therefore, there is scope for enormous growth in terms of medical tourism in Bangalore, the city being one of the fastest growing in Asia. However, apart from the medical facility that is available in the city at a much cheaper cost than in the West, if we can tag in tourism as part of the package by showcasing aspects of the rich cultural heritage and the nature of India, it will attract more people. This, in turn, will generate revenue and will also improve the economic viability for our people. Moreover, the government hospitals too provide good facilities and state-of-the-art equipment. That needs to be maintained well and marketed properly.

What are the reasons for our lagging behind Chennai, Mumbai
or Singapore when it comes to healthcare?

Dr Chandy: The infrastructure facilities in the city are not as good as that of our competitors Singapore and Bangkok. Also one of the prime concerns of patients who travel to another country is security and safety and India is a sort of a dark spot as far as the West is concerned. Contrary to the popular belief that insurance companies want to promote the idea of seeking treatment abroad to their customers, most of these firms don’t want them to seek treatment at all. They will not go out of their way to do that. A few insurance companies may do that with an additional premium. Patients come for treatment to a particular hospital not just considering the cost factor; its track record and popularity through word of mouth play important roles. And Bangalore needs to improve in these areas. While we are getting patients from neighbouring countries, it’s a slow growth when it comes to American, Australian and European patients.

Dr Maheshwari: The patients’ experience in Bangalore is not that smooth. We are a silicon valley, but we are not using technology optimally to facilitate the incoming of patients. We haven’t invested much in soft skills. There is a need to improve our services by training nurses in the front desk in the latest technology. A hospital registration in Singapore or Thailand takes not more than four minutes. Many of our nurses are lost to foreign countries, the attrition rate being 30% to 40%. Though we have the best doctors and the state-of-the-art technologies, the little gap can be covered by focusing on hospitality.

Dr Shetty: There was a time when patients from Bangalore used to go to Chennai for their treatment. Not anymore. For the last two years, Chennai has been the hub of medical tourism in south India. One of the prime reasons why Bangalore couldn’t make it to where Chennai is today is because the Chennai International Airport has been in existence even many years before the Bangalore International Airport came up. And it doesn’t matter how many good hospitals or specialists you have in Bangalore, international patients certainly would not like to change three to four flights before hitting the city for their treatment.

Does medical tourism mean generating revenue at the cost of the local’s health? What steps should the government take to improve medical tourism?

Dr Jawali: About 25% of rooms in private hospitals are either single rooms or suits. These are the revenue generating areas and not many locals stay here. Africans spend one billion US dollars in health care and they look toward south India for their treatment. Moreover, cost of the treatment in north India is 30% more expensive than what it is here. Thus if the government comes forward, we can utilise this opportunity to the utmost. If the government can spend 20% of its budget which it spends for the Incredible India campaign on medical tourism, India can do wonders. There should be a separate and quicker arrangement of getting visa and immigration for medical tourists. BIAL should provide special facilities for recently operated patients. We can also organise for transportation services wherein the patient is picked up from the airport and dropped back to the airport after the treatment. And in the bargain, the government will earn more than the hospitals.

Dr Maheshwari: Too much focus on medical tourism would mean making the whole system western, getting the same standard of equipment and comfort that the West is used to. The advantage of this will be that we’ll have the latest technology; the overall level of the way we deal with a particular treatment will improve. However, if that also means having an international cell focusing only on foreign patients and in the process neglecting the others, then it’s not right. We should try to utilise medical tourism for the benefit of the patients and simultaneously focus on the researches that can benefit our people.

Dr Gopinath: We need to maintain a balance between technology and the patient’s affordability. Treatment should be need based, specialty based and priority based. Treating foreign patients should not be our only priority and at the cost of neglecting others.

Dr Chandy: Meditourism is like the icing on the cake. And the icing cannot sit atop the cake unless the cake is well baked. Bangalore should have a better presentation of its hospitals in order to attract more foreign patients. If the government helps in marketing meditourism, a larger influx can be derived.

Dr Jayaram: Transparency of hospital records should be maintained in public. This will boost a sense of security among the patients.

Moreover, information about the treatments should be well dispersed in India and abroad. People should be made to understand about the cost effectiveness of treatments here.