Float policy to make Amritsar a medical tourism hub

People associated with medical profession want political parties and leaders to focus on devising a policy to harness its massive potential in the holy city and help emerge it as a medical tourism hub.

A leading oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr MS Dewan, said neither any political party nor contestant has made it a part of their manifestoes and roadmap for the futuristic development of the city.

With its state-of-the-art medical healthcare infrastructure, multi-specialty hospitals, skilled manpower coupled with its vibrant hospitality sector, the holy city unfolds an ideal destination to emerge as a medical tourism hub.

Superb infrastructure is available in forms of international airport, four-lane road connectivity to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah joint check post, international bus stand and others and it is complemented by a large number of luxury, medium and small budget hotels.

“We now require pressing upon the Union Government to introduce more direct international flights from Central Asian and CIS countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and nations to the city. This will help to harness city’s massive potential to emerge as a medical tourism hub.

Another medical professional, Dr Charu, said a strong positive aspect was that the city was already receiving NRI medical tourists from the US, the UK and Australia, besides patients from adjoining states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. This, she credited to the strong presence of a battery of multi-specialty and super-specialty hospitals equipped with advanced treatment facilities for eye-surgery, cardiology, IVF, dental surgery, hip and knee replacement.

Medical tourism here is equally supported by a strong presence of medical colleges to nursing colleges, pharmacy colleges and research institutions. So it can surely work as a catalyst for economic makeover of the city, she added. She recalled that Navjot Singh Sidhu, in his capacity as the BJP MP, had once announced that he would take up the matter with the Ministry of External Affairs for providing medical visas on priority to Pakistani patients to visit Amritsar for treatment as this would allow them not only quality cure but an economical one too. Tribune India