Medical Tourism is the most recent trend in privatization of healthcare services and is gaining prominence in developing countries like India. The term ‘medical tourism’ here is not tourism in real sense of the word i.e. it is not destination tourism rather it involves medical health package tourism. Tourism here refers to the provision of ‘cost effective’ private medical care in collaboration with the tourism industry for patients coming from foreign countries so that they could get good health care package.
Medical tourism or health care package tourism covers broad spectrum of medical services and has become a common form of vacationing. The objective of medical tourism package is to mingle wellness and healthcare with relaxation and leisure and to provide best of medical tour package to foreign patients.
India is a recent entrant into the global medical tourism map and medical tourism in India is at boom. McKinsey and the confederation of Indian Industry made a study and stated that medical tourism in India could become a $ 1 billion business by 2012. Government and private sector studies estimate that medical tourism in India is growing by 30 percent a year.
India has caught the attention of foreign patients with high quality treatment and services at private hospitals and those run by voluntary services. Some of the pluses offered in India are the international standard of medical attention, high-end equipments, personalized attention and minimum waiting period that too at a fraction of costs incurred overseas.
Indian hospitals like Apollo are providing a nice blend of top-class medical expertise at affordable prices and thus are attracting foreign patients. Apollo hospitals are one of the leading medical corporations of India serving medical tourists from foreign countries. Apollo is also moving into medical outsourcing where sub contractors provide services to the overburdened medical care systems in western countries. Western patients at Apollo usually get medical tour package that includes flights, transfers, hotels, treatment and post-operative vacation.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
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