The state wants to evolve into a preferred medical tourist destination for non-resident Gujaratis (NRGs) — a whopping six million of them, which is around 30% of the total 20 million-plus Indians NRI population.
Gujarat boasts of world class health facilities, zero waiting time and most importantly, one-tenth of medical costs that one would spend in the US or UK. The state wants to evolve into a preferred medical tourist destination for non-resident Gujaratis (NRGs) — a whopping 6 million of them, which is around 30 per cent of the total 20 million-plus Indians NRI population. But there isn't a single internationally accredited hospital in the state yet!
According to a rough estimate, about 1,200 to 1,500 NRGs and a small percentage of foreigners come to Gujarat every year for medical treatment, the majority being cardiac patients and a good number of them for joint replacement, plastic surgery and in-vitro fertilisation.
Hence, riding on the medical tourism bandwagon, the state machinery approved a Gujarat Medical Tourism Policy and invited private entrepreneurs to set up 'Medicity' and 'Healthcare Park' in 2006 and made an announcement touting Gujarat as the ultimate destination for people seeking medical facilities.
Today, a few years after the much-hyped proclamation, when Gujarat boasts of growth of 33% in medical tourism, against the country's 20%, progress chart shows that to date Gujarat has no internationally accredited hospital, while there are 14 such hospitals in India. Dr. Vikram Shah, founder of Shalby Hospitals, which has a National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) certificate says, "There are no internationally accredited hospitals in Gujarat yet because until recently Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai were the most preferred medical tourist destinations. And medical tourism is a new concept in Gujarat."
The main factors that lure medical tourists are word of mouth, combined with hospitals that woo cash-rich NRGs with 'tailored' medical packages that include sight-seeing itineraries in addition to attractive discounts. Indeed, as more foreign patients seek quality, the defining parameter in healthcare is international accreditation — which helps dispel much of the concern among the international community about the standard of India's private healthcare.
Countries like Singapore and Dubai which are competing with India for medical tourism, have made it mandatory for all hospitals to have The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) clearance, an independent, not-for-profit organisation that evaluates and accredits more than 15,000 healthcare organizations in the United States since 1951.
"Getting the Joint Commission- which has accredited more than 140 hospitals in 27 countries - accreditation is the way to go for Indian hospitals too if they want to join the international medical tourism action," said Dr. Ashraf Ismail, MD for JCI for Dubai.
JCI is one of the numerous groups providing accreditation for international healthcare organizations. In countries like the United Kingdom, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, sophisticated accreditation groups have been formed to survey and re-survey the hospitals that have standard international accreditations.
Many city-based corporate hospitals like Sterling and Shalby agree that majority of potential medical tourists ensure that the overseas healthcare they are planning to access is as safe as possible only by referring to the international accreditation that the hospitals have. "While choosing to cross international borders to access healthcare, international healthcare accreditation becomes increasingly important," said Dr. Parag Rindani from Sterling Hospital, which has an NABH accreditation. Sterling, incidentally, is working hard on getting a JCI accreditation.
Vital issues such as the standards of governance in the hospital, the overall medical hospital documentation of process for its healthcare activities, ethical standards operating within the organisation, the clinical track record of the hospital - international accreditation schemes have a long list of 1500 and more parameters which serve to evaluate in a systematic and comprehensive way the standards of professional performance in a hospital.
This includes not only hands-on patient core clinical care but also other support activities like requisition of tests, medicines, nurse-doctor coordination, infection control practices, training, and so on.
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