Just determine this out. Foreign journey to India for medical functions noticed a 66% rise in 2021 regardless of the Covid-19 pandemic. As per data offered by the Union ministry of tourism, in 2020, 183,000 vacationers got here to the nation for medical remedy. The quantity went as much as 304,000 in 2021, and over 1.4 million medical vacationers visited India in 2022.

Also, India was ranked tenth within the Medical Tourism Index (MTI) for 2020-2021 (out of 46 locations on this planet) by the Medical Tourism Association, a worldwide non-profit affiliation for the medical tourism and worldwide affected person business. Thailand, Mexico, US, Singapore, Brazil, Turkey and Taiwan are the highest locations by way of the variety of sufferers for medical worth journey, the tourism ministry provides.

The rising numbers are a testomony to the progress of India within the international healthcare ecosystem, with the nation rightly positioning itself as a most well-liked vacation spot for medical worth journey (MVT), or medical tourism, for contemporary in addition to conventional therapies and rejuvenation.

India stays the world’s most reasonably priced vacation spot for world-class healthcare, says Anas Abdul Wajid, senior director and chief gross sales and advertising and marketing officer, Max Healthcare, which caters to sufferers from nations similar to Iraq, Uzbekistan, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Fiji and Kyrgyzstan. “We have the finest clinicians, latest medical equipment (including state-of-the-art robotics), efficiently-run hospitals and the Indian culture of hospitality and warmth towards guests,” he says, including: “Indian hospitals are regarded all over the world for their clinical expertise and efficient operations, but at a fraction of the cost incurred in developed markets such as the US, Europe, Turkey, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.”

Seema Vig, facility director, Paras Health, Gurugram, agrees. “India has emerged as a cost-effective nation for treatments compared to many Western countries without compromising on quality, and provides a wide range of medical treatments and procedures, including but not limited to cardiac surgeries, organ transplants, orthopedic procedures, cosmetic surgeries and cancer treatments. In fact, patients often combine their medical travel with tourism due to India’s rich cultural heritage and tourist attractions, offering a holistic experience during their recovery period,” she provides.

While one of many greatest benefits is the efficient price of medical remedy, the opposite is accessibility, says Jyoti Mayal, president, Travel Agents’ Association of India (TAAI) and vice chairperson, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH). “Unlike many other international destinations, patients do not have to wait for months to get an appointment in India. Moreover, Indian doctors are known to be committed and provide much more personalised care. Some of the major Indian cities attracting medical tourists include Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Nagpur, Kochi, Pune and Nashik,” she provides.

So, what are the therapies that sufferers usually come for? At Max, as an illustration, sufferers search for high-end tertiary care wants like oncology, transplants (bone marrow, liver and kidney), cardiac interventions and surgical procedures together with pediatric cardiac surgical procedures, neuro and backbone surgical procedures, orthopaedics and varied minimally-invasive GI surgical procedures. For occasion, final yr, medical doctors at Max Super Speciality Hospital in Vaishali, Ghaziabad, efficiently carried out a uncommon, two-way swap liver transplant involving two sufferers and their two donors from totally different cities in Uzbekistan.

Similarly, Fortis Healthcare has sufferers coming from the Middle-East, Africa, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations, Asia and the Pacific, which embody Iraq, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Mongolia, Myanmar, China, Indonesia, Japan and Fiji.

As per Anil Vinayak, group COO, Fortis Healthcare, “patients from these countries come majorly for the globally renowned clinical teams and cutting-edge medical technology”. There’s a whole spectrum of diagnostic and therapeutic know-how and top-end machines that embody three Tesla Digital MRI scanners, a stem cell laboratory and a ‘CT Brain Suite’, amongst others, at Fortis. “We are introducing the MR linear accelerator and gamma knife machine in May, adding to the gamut of sophisticated equipment for cancer treatment,” says Vinayak, who has seen 20% progress by way of sufferers through the years for medical journey inside the group.

Gamma knife is a sophisticated radiation remedy with small- to medium-sized mind tumours, irregular blood vessel formations, epilepsy, trigeminal neuralgia, a nerve situation that causes persistent ache and different neurological situations. It causes little or no injury to surrounding tissue; sufferers with critical issues might be handled with non-invasive procedures in sooner or later with none in a single day hospital keep.

Offering assist, proper from inquiry to visa help and lodging for sufferers, Manipal Hospitals has a community of greater than 28 hospitals throughout over 15 cities in India. It provides service with video consultations for worldwide sufferers with a whole remedy plan earlier than travelling. Apart from robotics and AI in surgical procedures to ship high quality and personalised healthcare, the hospital has integrated superior digital options to watch affected person progress and empower ‘continuity of care post-high-risk surgeries’.

“For remote care capabilities, we collaborated with Fujifilm India to provide digitised solutions for patient diagnosis. This AI-enabled picture archiving and communication system (PACS) eliminates the need for manually storing, retrieving and sending sensitive information, films and reports, which help us create a comprehensive treatment plan. It is scalable to more clinical specialities and covers three million studies per year currently,” says Karthik Rajagopal, chief working officer of Manipal Hospitals, which has seen medical journey enhance by 30-40% publish Covid.

India provides quite a few benefits to well being seekers, which embody high-quality, educated and competent medical doctors, empathetic nursing employees, English-speaking personnel and inhabitants, says Dr Santosh Shetty, CEO and govt director at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai. “The hospital receives many patients from Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Uganda), Middle-East (UAE, Oman, Qatar, Iraq, Yemen) and SAARC countries (Bangladesh, Nepal), in addition to non-insured patients coming for dental treatments and cosmetic surgeries from developed countries such as the US and the UK,” he provides. The therapies for which they arrive embody oncology, neurosurgery, paediatric cardiac surgical procedure, high-end orthopaedics, organ transplants and rehabilitation companies.

Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital has already invested in surgical robots, orthopaedic robots, rehab robotics, newest radiation oncology tools, biplane cath lab, digital PET CT and complete lab automation—applied sciences for each diagnostics and remedy, that are an enormous draw for medical vacationers.

A dynamic well being hub

Another USP of India as a worldwide medical tourism hub is the provision of therapies based mostly on conventional drugs—particularly, ayurveda, yoga and unani. This is moreover the colourful panorama of wellness and rejuvenation that the nation supplies to medical vacationers.

Last yr, the federal government rolled out the Ayush e-visa for worldwide sufferers preferring locations in India for well being, religious and yoga retreats. “India is home to the world’s oldest medical systems, ayurveda. With its unique strengths coming to the fore, demand for ayush treatments like ayurveda, yoga, siddha, unani and homeopathy has increased across the world and the same is also promoted,” Mansukh Mandaviya, minister of well being and household welfare, mentioned on the 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva.

Understanding the affect on healthcare techniques the world over, the minister said that “the pandemic has demonstrated that health threats are not confined to national borders and requires a coordinated global response. It is in this context that India has been supporting in terms of capacity building of healthcare workers, coupled with harnessing digital technology as the way forward”.

As per Vaidya Manoj Nesari, advisor (ayurveda), ministry of Ayush, India is amongst prime 10 nations for medical tourism and amongst prime 5 in wellness tourism. “The sizable number of hospitals in different cities spanning the entire southern and western parts of the country has achieved JCI (Joint Commission International) accreditation, thereby generating trust in the international community about the quality and safety of services provided,” he provides. JCI is an impartial, not-for-profit organisation that identifies, measures and shares finest practices in high quality and affected person security world wide.

Nesari additional explains that India has a big pool of certified medical doctors together with round 1.3 million allopathy medical doctors, 0.4 million ayurveda medical doctors and 0.3 million homeopathy, unani, siddha and sowa rigpa medical doctors. “India boasts world-class medical facilities equipped with advanced technologies, highly skilled professionals, a comprehensive range of medical services, ranging from specialised surgeries like cardiac surgery and organ transplantation to cosmetic and dental procedures, providing patients with virtually every medical need. The ayush system also addresses physical, mental and spiritual well-being, making them attractive to medical tourists seeking comprehensive care,” says Nesari, including that folks from the US, UK, Middle-Eastern nations, European nations, Asian nations and Australia go to India for Ayush therapies.

India has a novel facet in medical tourism—different therapies, says Mayal of TAAI and FAITH. “India has invested heavily in Ayush attracting medical value travellers. We encourage our members to explore niche markets such as medical tourism and give them all the support they require to connect and transact business,” she provides.

So, that are the locations which are wanted? According to Nishant Pitti, CEO and co-founder of on-line journey firm EaseMyTrip, Alleppey is understood for its ayurvedic therapies and holistic healthcare system. “People visit the city for unique treatments for ailments in the form of experiences and massages,” he says. Chennai can also be one of many cost-effective locations to avail world-class healthcare. “The high standards of hospitals and reasonable costs make the city a viable medical tourism destination. Mumbai is another place that boasts global quality treatment facilities, superspeciality hospitals and research and diagnostic hubs. Additionally, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Goa, Hyderabad and Vellore are other prominent medical tourism destinations in the country,” he provides.

Highly-skilled manpower, specialised medical professionals, strong infrastructure, pharmaceutical improvement, price competitiveness and the rising reputation of the therapeutic practices with the Ayush strategy are main components that give India an edge over different medical tourism locations, provides Pitti.

Meanwhile, India can also be rising as a beneficial vacation spot to conduct medical trials with a big and numerous affected person pool, streamlined regulatory processes and a extremely expert workforce. This additionally presents a big alternative for personal biopharma corporations to leverage the nation’s wealthy range and strong healthcare infrastructure to conduct environment friendly and cost-effective medical trials.

A joint report by PwC India and the US-India Chamber of Commerce (USAIC) titled, ‘Clinical Trial opportunities in India’, signifies that the medical trial exercise in India has been rising steadily since 2014 attributable to key regulatory reforms aimed in the direction of international harmonisation, enabling open entry to medical trials in India. “This is an opportunity for top biopharma companies to develop a long-term strategy that focuses on the key enablers of innovation and strategic partnerships in India,” says Sujay Shetty, accomplice and global health industries chief, PwC.

Going forward

With MVT, Wajid of Max Healthcare expects extra sufferers to journey to India for his or her healthcare wants as “we improve our clinical services and patient services and ease of travel to India and within India”. The hospital noticed worldwide affected person income develop by 43%. In This autumn FY23, the share of worldwide affected person revenues stood at 9.1% of the full income. The hospital has additionally created fastened packages for 25 commonest remedy procedures/ surgical procedures to deal with a significant concern of worldwide sufferers—the uncertainty concerning the escalation of payments. With fastened packages, sufferers should pay solely the package deal value even when they should keep within the hospital longer following an surprising complication.

“For non-packaged surgeries, the hospital team offers a firm estimate at the time of admission, which is usually +/-10% of the bill. We are already offering robotic surgeries to our international patients. Currently, we have 17 robotic systems in the network. Robotic surgeries are more precise, have fewer complications, have less blood loss and reduce the patient’s stay in the hospital,” says Wajid.

Going forward, the medical tourism business goes to be extremely aggressive, and healthcare suppliers should always innovate to remain forward of their rivals, says a spokesperson of Apollo Hospitals Group. “Over the years, we have invested in several innovative technologies and services that have been introduced in the medical value industry, such as telemedicine, virtual consultations, personalised treatment plans and medical concierge services. These have improved the accessibility and quality of medical care for medical tourists, making it easier for them to receive treatment in India and access quality healthcare services at an affordable cost,” the spokesperson provides.

The hospital has given medical help to virtually 200,000 sufferers coming from totally different elements of the globe, together with Bangladesh, Oman, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria, Mauritius, Pacific Islands, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kenya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.

Meanwhile, Max is working intently with international accomplice hospitals, healthcare journey operators, worldwide insurance coverage corporations and NGOs who fund healthcare of their nations and ministries of well being and different authorities departments. Max Healthcare has expanded its direct presence in eight nations—Kenya (Nairobi), Nigeria (Lagos), United Arab Emirates (Dubai), Oman (Muscat), Myanmar, Ethiopia (Addis Ababa), Uzbekistan (Tashkent) and Nepal (Kathmandu). This is along with the oblique presence in six nations by means of 9 accomplice workplaces (three in Iraq, two in Yemen and one every in Fiji, Cameroon, Mongolia and Georgia). The Nairobi workplace continued its concentrate on selling tertiary care extremely advanced procedures of bone marrow transplants, liver transplants and paediatric cardiac surgical procedures and oncology therapies. The Dubai workplace has accomplished one yr and has been capable of make a mark for itself within the UAE.

“These have been set up with a view to explore MVT related opportunities in these regions. Additionally, we also have 10 partner offices in countries such as Iraq, Yemen, Cameroon, Mongolia, Georgia and Cambodia,” provides Wajid.