India Medical Tourism

Medical tourism is a growing sector in India. India’s medical tourism sector is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 30%, making it a Rs. 9,500-crore industry by 2015.[1] Estimates of the value of medical tourism to India go as high as $2 billion a year by 2012.[2] As medical treatment costs in the developed world balloon - with the United States leading the way - more and more Westerners are finding the prospect of international travel for medical care increasingly appealing. An estimated 150,000 of these travel to India for low-priced healthcare procedures every year.[3]

Attractions

Advantages for medical tourists include reduced costs, the availability of latest medical technologies and a growing compliance on international quality standards, as well as the fact that foreigners are less likely to face a language barriers in India. The Indian government is taking steps to address infrastructure issues that hinder the country's growth in medical tourism.

Most estimates claim treatment costs in India start at around a tenth of the price of comparable treatment in America or Britain.[4][5] The most popular treatments sought in India by medical tourists are alternative medicine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac bypass, eye surgery and hip replacement. India is known in particular for heart surgery, hip resurfacing and other areas of advanced medicine.

1.^ Indian Medical Tourism To Touch Rs 9,500 Crore By 2015, The Economic Times, posted on IndianHealthCare.in
2.^ "Just what the hospital ordered: Global accreditations", by Zeenat Nazir, Indian Express, Sept 18, 2006. Retrieved September 29, 2006.
3.^ "Swamis to Surgeries", medicaltourismmag.com, January 19, 2011
4.^ "Indian medical care goes global", Aljazeera.Net, June 18, 2006 Nov 11, 2006
5.^ Laurie Goering, "For big surgery, Delhi is dealing," The Chicago Tribune, March 28, 2008

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