What is Medical Tourism? And, why is India considered the best optionby USA/UK, and third world countries?

Question

Where do we stand vis-a-vis interms of Medical or Health and Tourism Services?
Do we reallyjustifyor operate onlyas touroperators leaving thepatient in lurk?
Has anyone heard abour Swadesh International-a Medical Tourism Company?
Where is it's base, and whatservices are they offering?
This sector is likely to prove a second trump card like IT for India, and like Sam Pitroda was the motivating force behind IT, who is the force behind Medical Tourism? Is there anyindividual who knows the world inside outand can reallydo true justice for the benefit of mankind-make treatment affordable for the commonman.

Answer 1

Medical Tourism India (a.k.a. Health Tourism India) is a developing concept whereby people from world over visit India for their medical and relaxation needs. Most common treatments are heart surgery, knee transplant, cosmetic surgery and dental care. The reason India is a favourable destination is because of it's infrastructure and technology in which is in par with those in USA, UK and Europe. India has some of the best hospitals and treatment centers in the world with the best facilities. Since it is also one of the most favourable tourist destinations in the world, Medication combines with tourism has come into effect, from which the concept of Medical Tourism is derived.

Taken from Financial Times (2/7/03)
India is promoting the "high-tech healing" of its private healthcare sector as a tourist attraction.

The government hopes to encourage a budding trade in medical tourism, selling foreigners the idea of travelling to India for low-cost but world-class medical treatment.

Naresh Trehan, executive director of Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre, a leading private healthcare provider, says India has established world-class expertise in practices such as cardiac care, cosmetic surgery, joint replacements and dentistry.

Merging medical expertise and tourism became government policy when finance minister Jaswant Singh, in this year's budget, called for India to become a "global health destination".
.....

For example, in April Madras Medical Mission, a Chennai-based hospital, successfully conducted a complex heart operation on an 87-year-old American patient at a reported cost of $8,000 (€7,000, £4,850) including the cost of his airfare and a month's stay in hospital. The patient claimed that a less complex operation in America had earlier cost him $40,000.
http://www.medical-tourism-india.com/

Swadesh International

8349 Reseda Blvd., Suite # E.
Northridge,CA. 91324,
USA
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]


Toll Free:
1 (877) 2 INDIA 3
1 [phone]

e-mail: [e-mail]
www.swadeshinternational.com

http://www.swadeshinternational.com/

Answer 2

I can answer only a few of your questions. Beyond doubt, India
qualifies as a front runner having good physicians, updated apparatus, new methods of treatments introduced and above all very cheap and affordable costs[about half or incertain cases just one fourth of the cost in USA/UK. I had a surgery in a noted ortho hospital where [1] I paid INR 1.15lakhs[2]an Arabian paid INR 7.5lakhs and [3] I come to know that in European countries they charge INR 18lakhs.Please note that the patients of other wealthy countries go to USA while the not so rich prefer India. Beyond doubt both get the same, best treatments.

Answer 3

PlacidWay is designed as the ultimate resource for the health and wellness tourism industry, more commonly known as medical tourism. At PlacidWay, we strive to offer you the best resources and information on medical providers found in a multitude of international destinations in order to help you make safe, effective and affordable choices regarding your healthcare.

Answer 4

Medical Tourism

What's called medical tourism � patients going to a different country for either urgent or elective medical procedures � is fast becoming a worldwide, multibillion-dollar industry.

The reasons patients travel for treatment vary. Many medical tourists from the United States are seeking treatment at a quarter or sometimes even a 10th of the cost at home. From Canada, it is often people who are frustrated by long waiting times. From Great Britain, the patient can't wait for treatment by the National Health Service but also can't afford to see a physician in private practice. For others, becoming a medical tourist is a chance to combine a tropical vacation with elective or plastic surgery.

And more patients are coming from poorer countries such as Bangladesh where treatment may not be available.

Medical tourism is actually thousands of years old. In ancient Greece, pilgrims and patients came from all over the Mediterranean to the sanctuary of the healing god, Asklepios, at Epidaurus. In Roman Britain, patients took the waters at a shrine at Bath, a practice that continued for 2,000 years. From the 18th century wealthy Europeans travelled to spas from Germany to the Nile. In the 21st century, relatively low-cost jet travel has taken the industry beyond the wealthy and desperate.

Countries that actively promote medical tourism include Cuba, Costa Rica, Hungary, India, Israel, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia and Thailand. Belgium, Poland and Singapore are now entering the field. South Africa specializes in medical safaris-visit the country for a safari, with a stopover for plastic surgery, a nose job and a chance to see lions and elephants.
India

India is considered the leading country promoting medical tourism-and now it is moving into a new area of "medical outsourcing," where subcontractors provide services to the overburdened medical care systems in western countries.

India's National Health Policy declares that treatment of foreign patients is legally an "export" and deemed "eligible for all fiscal incentives extended to export earnings." Government and private sector studies in India estimate that medical tourism could bring between $1 billion and $2 billion US into the country by 2012. The reports estimate that medical tourism to India is growing by 30 per cent a year.

India's top-rated education system is not only churning out computer programmers and engineers, but an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 doctors and nurses each year.

The largest of the estimated half-dozen medical corporations in India serving medical tourists is Apollo Hospital Enterprises, which treated an estimated 60,000 patients between 2001 and spring 2004. It is Apollo that is aggressively moving into medical outsourcing. Apollo already provides overnight computer services for U.S. insurance companies and hospitals as well as working with big pharmaceutical corporations with drug trials. Dr. Prathap C. Reddy, the chairman of the company, began negotiations in the spring of 2004 with Britain's National Health Service to work as a subcontractor, to do operations and medical tests for patients at a fraction of the cost in Britain for either government or private care.

Apollo's business began to grow in the 1990s, with the deregulation of the Indian economy, which drastically cut the bureaucratic barriers to expansion and made it easier to import the most modern medical equipment. The first patients were Indian expatriates who returned home for treatment; major investment houses followed with money and then patients from Europe, the Middle East and Canada began to arrive. Apollo now has 37 hospitals, with about 7,000 beds. The company is in partnership in hospitals in Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Nigeria.

Western patients usually get a package deal that includes flights, transfers, hotels, treatment and often a post-operative vacation.

Apollo has also reacted to criticism by Indian politicians by expanding its services to India's millions of poor. It has set aside free beds for those who can't afford care, has set up a trust fund and is pioneering remote, satellite-linked telemedicine across India.