Medical Tourism In India And Hyderabad
Being one of the fastest growing medical destinations around the world, India is predicted to drive higher with time. Everybody can get tertiary medical treatment in India which is either not available or people cannot afford it in their home country. Here are the major factors which make India an ideal medical tourism spot.
Strengths
- Low cost of treatment when compared to the first world countries like the US and UK;
- Getting visas for medical purpose is much easier than ever;
- Access to immediate service is what attracts foreign medical tourists. Surgeries are done almost immediately;
- Even though India is a developing country, it provides world-class and standardized medical services and care with the help of the latest technology;
- Post retreatment recovery provided to the patients with therapies like Ayurveda, Naturopathy, and Yoga;
- India provides an opportunity for the medical tourists to visit some of the most alluring and awe-inspiring places by taking them on a medical tourist trip;
- India has a strong base of qualified and skilled doctors. Another major factor that has made India succeed in inviting the medical tourists is the populace of good English speaking doctors, guides, and medical staff which makes it easier for the foreign tourists to correlate well to Indian doctors;
- Hospitals with international standards like JCI accredited hospitals;
- Availability of all kinds of medical treatment; and
- Good infrastructure.
Weakness
- Lack of language translators or interpreter;
- Non-availability of financial support to patients;
- Visa issues; and
- Some hospitals lack international accreditation.
Hyderabad is an emerging hub of medical tourism
Hyderabad is fast emerging as a major Indian city with top-class ecosystem to support medical tourism. From a trickle to a steady stream of international patients, the city in the last few years broke into the top five Indian cities that attract the largest number of international patients for treatment. Back in 2009-10, the estimated revenue generated through medical tourism in Hyderabad was Rs 3 crore, which has expanded to nearly Rs 15 crore today and is projected to touch Rs 50 crore marks in the next few years.
On an average, every month, nearly 1000 patients from the Middle East, Africa, and SAARC countries get themselves admitted in the corporate hospitals of Hyderabad for treatment which is a far cry from a few years ago when the number of these patients was few and far between. With massive investments made by private hospitals to constantly update medical technology and talent apart from improvement in-flight connectivity and world-class medical facilities but at a cheaper cost and sharp marketing played a big role in catapulting Hyderabad into a major hub for medical tourism.
However, compared to other metros in terms of the number of international patients arriving as part of medical tourism, Hyderabad has a long way to go. At around the same time, due to rapid economic development in India, private hospitals like Apollo, Medanta, Max, and others started investing heavily in the development of world-class medical machinery and human resources. Patients realized the potential in Indian hospitals and India joined the elite group of countries like the US, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand as medical tourism destinations.
However, India scored over others when it came to providing world-class treatment and facilities at a very competitive cost. In the last 5 to 8 years, thanks to a lot of word of mouth publicity, India has become a top destination and is among top five countries that include the US, Singapore, Germany and Israel for medical tourism.
