Quality, lower costs boosting medical travel

When 60-year-old Lucy Green from Reading, England was informed by doctors that she had to undergo a knee replacement, the first thing the retired bank employee did was to evaluate the costs.

Green wanted the best treatment, but at affordable rates. She figured out that if she underwent the operation in UK, the costs would mount to a stupendous $50,110. If she flew to the US, the expenditure would be nowhere less than $48,000, plus air travel and stay.

Just then, a doctor friend in Reading suggested India, where she would have to pay just about $4,500 and get the same treatment. Green is now recuperating in the Nilgiris, post her operation last month in a metro in south India, and would soon be heading back to Reading in time for Christmas.

Like Green, the number of people flocking to India for treatment is growing by leaps and bounds. People are coming to treat both for high-end requirements like cancer, transplants, etc as well as for preventive care and cosmetic surgeries, said Anil K Maini, president, corporate development, Apollo Hospitals. “Estimates suggest that about 1,50,000 medical tourists visit India every year,” said Maini.

According to Y P Bhatia, managing director, Astron Hospital and Healthcare Consultants, a consultancy firm based in New Delhi, India’s edge in medical tourism lies in providing quality services at a fraction of the developed world’s costs.

Moreover, several corporate hospitals in India are accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), the international healthcare accreditation authority, which hikes confidence levels amongst international patients about safety norms.

Vivek Desai, managing director, Hosmac, a healthcare consultancy firm, said, “JCI accreditation brings hospitals closer to international norms and is key for attracting patients. About nine hospitals in India have JCI accreditation.”

Also, several doctors return to India after working or training abroad, and this gives rise to patient referrals, said Vijay Gupta, deputy director, marketing, at Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai. “Corporate hospitals use high-end technology from the best manufacturers. This helps in building confidence levels about quality of service,” said Gupta.

According to B S Ajaikumar, chairman and CEO of HealthCare Global (HCG) Enterprises, a chain of cancer hospitals, India provides technologies which are not present even in some developed countries.

“A cancer patient from The Netherlands came to Bangalore for treatment through the Cyberknife system, which is a form of radio surgery and is currently not available in Holland. In the US it costs about Rs 20 lakh, against Rs 4-4.2 lakh in India. The cost difference and unavailability of the treatment in his home country, made the patient travel to Bangalore.”

All these factors have triggered the spur of medical travel with patients coming from different corners of the world - more than 25% coming from Saarc countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, 23% from the Gulf and Middle East, 20% from Africa, 10% from the US,UK, Canada and 22% from rest of the world, industry data shows.

“While those from SAARC countries, Africa, primarily come due to lack of facilities in their home countries, people from the developed regions come due to the cost factor,” Mahendar Pala, senior DGM, business development, Global Hospitals, a tertiary care chain headquartered in Hyderabad, said.

Estimates by management consulting firm McKinsey and Confederation of Indian Industry suggest that medical tourism to India is expected to bring revenue of $2 billion by 2012.
“We are seeing a 30-35% growth in healthcare travel and we had about 300 international patients at our main centres in Bangalore, Delhi, and Ahmedabad in the last one year,” Ajaikumar said.

According to Maini, at the 550 bed Indraprastha Apollo in New Delhi, over 100 patients are from overseas. “13% of revenues at Indraprastha come from overseas patients.”
At Hinduja Hospital, about 3-5% of the business comes from overseas patients, said Gupta. “About 8-9 patients per month come from regions in the Gulf, Africa.” Likewise, Global Hospitals sees about 10-12 overseas patients per month at its key centres in Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Chennai, Pala said.