Foreign govts regulate medical travel to India

New Delhi, October 15, 2013: International patients have been largely visiting Indian hospitals for medical procedures on their individual capacity. In view of the growing demand for medical travel, most government departments of the source countries are increasingly serving as intermediaries, trying to structure and regulate it.

Several countries in Africa and West Asia have overseas referral departments under ministry of health, external affairs or defence, which take care of group medical travel. They forge agreements with hospital groups before sending patients.

“We have agreements with around 20 such countries, including Tanzania, Nigeria, Iraq, UAE and Oman. On October 1, 30 such patients were sent by the Iraq administration to our Delhi hospital,” said Raj Raina, general manager, marketing and strategic business, Apollo Hospitals.

The government agency first studies about the Indian healthcare institution, their clinical outcomes, physical infrastructure and accommodation facilities before sending patients. In many cases they visit the hospitals to personally verify the facilities.

“Many countries acknowledge the fact that there is a forex outgo when their citizens travel abroad for medical purposes. Now the governments are trying to regulate and structure the travel so that the patients get quality service and better deal,” said C Chandrasekar, executive director of Global Hospitals.

“In our healthcare market, we have islands of excellence. Identifying the right hospital is better done by a government agency than individuals,” he said.

In many cases, these government agencies also try to bargain on the aggregate pricing as patients are sent in groups. Some of the patients are sponsored by the government themselves.

Of the total number of international patients coming to Apollo, 15 to 20 per cent come through government intervention.

Indian hospitals also have started seeing increasing number of patients coming from CIS region. Countries like Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan are some of the countries, which have started sending patients to India.

“India has always provided cost advantage against more traditional destinations like Russia, Jordan and Turkey. Better air connectivity with daily flights has made travel easier,” said Anas Abdul Wajid, head, sales and international, Fortis Healthcare.

The promotional activities done by some of the large Indian hospitals also have started bearing fruits now. Fortis is receiving around 25 patients a month from the region this year, while the numbers were negligible last year. Apollo too is receiving around 50 patients a month from the region.

“The patients from the region have a good understanding of India due to the closer ties during the Soviet era. Some of our doctors have studied and worked in Russia and so the language barrier is also taken care of,” said Raina. — mydigitalfc.com