Hospitals are bullish on the prospect of medical worth journey or medical tourism. Initiatives reminiscent of ‘Heal In India’ by the federal government will add impetus as it’s anticipated to extend transparency. Indian hospitals have the benefit of not solely scientific expertise and value however softer expertise reminiscent of proficiency in English. Here is what the highest hospital heads of Medanta, Fortis and Apollo Hospitals needed to say on medical worth tourism.

While talking to CNBC-TV18’s Ekta Batra, Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman and MD of Medanta mentioned earlier than COVID-19, round 12 p.c sufferers had been worldwide. However, it fell to 3-4 p.c and now rising once more.

He additional added that medical tourism restoration is far sooner. The greatest bottleneck has been visas — pending visas have been issued. There are round 140 visas ready in Iraq to come back.

According to him, authorities schemes have helped set off medical tourism and India has an enormous future in terms of the identical, including that India has the very best stage of care throughout all specialities. India gives high quality, value efficient companies and is extra common in English versus different international locations. India has a great picture and is bettering, he mentioned.

Meanwhile, Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, MD and CEO of Fortis Healthcare, mentioned medical tourism is round 10 p.c of gross sales. He expects it to rise to 12-15 p.c within the subsequent 1.5 to 2 years.

According to him, Heal In India will carry transparency in interactions. However, one of many challenges is basic infrastructure in healthcare.

While Apollo Hospitals’ MD Suneeta Reddy mentioned medical worth tourism must be round 7 p.c of gross sales in FY23E (estimated). According to her, medical worth tourism on absolute foundation has risen 19 p.c from 2020 and the potential for medical worth tourism can go to twenty p.c of gross sales.

Apollo Hospitals will likely be a giant participant in Medical tourism resulting from its areas, she mentioned.