Medical Tourism - Wealth Within Health

Neeti Chopra - Mumbai

India's relatively developing medical tourism segment has been anointed by industry pundits as the next 'best' thing to happen to tourism. There is however plenty of challenges to be met along the roadmap towards critical mass for this segment. According to a McKinsey report, India is poised to generate business worth US$ 2.2 billion by 2010, but is yet to receive proper accreditation and requisite standardisation systems in place. Also, there is a dearth of synergies between hospitals and tour operators to promote this sector. These were some of the findings at the session titled, 'Medical Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges'.

(L to R): Gour Kanjilal, regional director (Western & Central Region), Indiatourism, Mumbai, Joy Chakraborty, deputy administrator, Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre, Anupam Verma, director administration, PD Hinduja National Hospital, Dr R V Karanjekar, chief executive officer, Dr D Y Patil Hospital And Research Centre, Mumbai and Mahendra Jain, commissioner of tourism, government of Karnataka.

The panelists for the session comprised Anupam Verma, director administration, PD Hinduja National Hospital, Gour Kanjilal, regional director (Western & Central Region), Indiatourism, Mumbai, Dr R V Karanjekar, chief executive officer, Dr D Y Patil Hospital And Research Centre, Mumbai, Mahendra Jain, commissioner of tourism, government of Karnataka, and Joy Chakraborty, deputy administrator, Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre.

All agreed that a tripartite synergy between hospitals, tour operators and respective state governments was an imperative in order to harness

Tapping Latent Potential

India's has a latent medical tourism potential. In 2004, India treated and cared for 1.8 lakh patients. This number is poised for substantial growth - 25-30 per cent in 2005. The panel agreed that India's main USP in this regard was the prospect of low-cost treatment by highly professional medicos. Estimates claim that treatment cost is between one fifth to one tenth of the price incurred in South East Asia and Britain respectively. According to Karanjekar, India will have to project itself as being a holistic medical destination to get an edge over other countries. "India offers not just treatment but spiritual and mental healing as well. We need to club together a couple of 'pathies' because we have a very strong base of alternative healing therapies like yoga, naturapathy, ayurveda, etc," says Karanjekar.

Yet cost-savings may not be enough to foster a healthy growth. Ghulam Naqshband, CEO, Le Passage, pointed out, "The medical community in UK is not willing to recommend India because they are not supported by insurance companies." The panelists echoed yet another imperative that creating awareness about India's facilities is a must to establish credibility in foreign markets.

A focussed audience pays undivided attention to impactful presentations	Industry stalwarts pay close heed to the presentation on an emerging segment

Taking The First Step

Talking about initiatives that can help in generating the right exposure, Jain said, "It is time we create a database on the facilities on offer, the number of patients received and from which market, reason for choosing India, their length of stay, etc. These data can provide pointers to help us in devising country-specific promotional strategies."

Chakraborty further suggested that the standardisation of a price band for graded hospitals and a quality assurance model should be taken up immediately to take medical tourism ahead. "CRISIL and ICRA have started something on price bands but are facing few challenges at the moment. What we can do, is try and follow the Thailand model. Thailand first developed its standards as per Joint Commissioner International (JSI) which helped them to get approval from national health scheme of UK. So convincing medical insurance companies was not a problem."

In conclusion Kanjilal said, a joint task force on medical tourism has already been set up by ministry of tourism in collaboration with ministry of health which will look into quality assurance, standardisation of price, global networking and improving visibility. The state governments of Karnataka and Maharashtra have already formed Medical Tourism Councils comprising hospitals, hotels and tour operators.

On a very interactive question and answer session, one member of the audience, Om Prakash, director, Orbit Tours made a point, saying, "It is important to form a regulatory body comprising tour operators, doctors and bureaucrats and have a single window system where patients seeking treatment can have all the information they need from one source."