Medical Tourism in India
Medical tourism is a term used to describe the practice of travelling across countries to avail health services which are cost effective and save time which would otherwise be lost in a wait to get treatments.
This trend largely involves people from the west looking out for effective heath treatments across the globe. Asiatic countries like India, the Philippines, and Thailand have been popular destinations of medical tourism. India stands out as a popular choice for receiving medical treatments since it not only offer cost effective services but boasts of many state-of-the-art hospitals, skilled doctors and quality treatments. The other reason for its increasing popularity as a medical tourism hub is because its excellent service combines with world class tourism experience both of which combine to bring about speedy recovery.
India which is popular for its rejuvenation treatments from ayurveda and practice of yoga fulfills the idea of health tourism. Patients get to enjoy rejuvenation at all levels-physical, mental and emotional. These factors have made many patients from the US, Europe and other affluent nations with high Medicare costs in choosing India as a cost effective and trustworthy option for medical treatments.
Though India has been pitted against other Asian countries like Singapore and Thailand who manage to attract a few lakh foreign patients each year, Indian medical tourism has been growing steadily by 15% every year as a result of competent costs and top class medical care. In comparing the cost of various treatments, it has been found that the Indian medical treatments cost lesser than their Thailand and Singapore counterparts and much lesser than the treatment costs in the US. For instance, a Dental Implant which would cost USD 10,000 would cost a mere sum of USD 1,500 in India as against USD 2,000 in Thailand and USD 2,400 in Singapore. Any complex medical treatment also reveals similar difference in figures. A patient for By Pass surgery who would pay USD 1, 00,000 in US would pay just USD 9,300 in India.
The figures mentioned above are not the only reason for making India a popular choice among other Asiatic countries. It has been reported that patients are hardly put on waiting lists as is common in European and American countries. On the contrary priority treatment is provided in India hospitals.
In addition to the advantages listed above, Indian Corporate hospitals stand as a promise to excellent medical and service standards which would match those in any developed countries. The Apollo Group, Escorts Hospitals, Jaslok Hospitals and The Taj Medical group are some of the entries into the corporate hospitals genre in India. They offer world class services for a variety of treatments such as Cardiothoracic Surgery, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Orthopedic Surgery, Joint Replacements, neurology, Neurosurgery, Oncology, ENT, Pediatric Surgery, Rheumatology, Urology, Dental Surgery, Gynecology, Plastic Surgery, Psychiatry, General Medicine and General Surgery. Their services range from General Radiography, Ultra Sonography, and Mammography to high end services like Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Nuclear Imaging, Digital Subtraction Angiography and the like.
The recovery rate of patients treated in India is found to be overwhelmingly positive since the medical expertise in the country combines with rejuvenation of the soul which has made India a suitable destination for complete Medical Tourism experience. In addition, India is also moving into a new area of Medical Outsourcing where subcontractors provide services to overburdened medical care systems in western countries.
India’s top-rated education not only churns out computer programmers and engineers but also manages to provide excellent doctors and nurses each year who are the key to quality health care treatments in India.
