The Ministry of Tourism (MoT) has been in discussions with major hospitals to offer incentivised deals as part of Visit India 2009. Hence better deals are in the offing for people travelling to India for a heart bypass surgery or a bone marrow transplant. Sujit Banerjee, Secretary, MoT said, “We have met representatives from major hospitals and I am waiting for their offer. We will like to include Medical Tourism in the Visit India incentive scheme.” According to a report in Times of India by Himanshi Dhawan, MoT has held discussions with hospitals like Wockhardt, Apollo, Lakeshore, Moolchand, Manipal, Sevenhills and Gangaram. Over 1.5 lakh medical tourists travelled to India in 2002 alone, bringing in earnings of USD 300 million. Since then, number of such travellers has been increasing by at least 25 per cent every year. A CII-McKinsey report projects that earnings through Medical Tourism will go up to USD two billion by 2012.
A Planning Commission report stated that while a heart bypass surgery will cost a patient USD 6,000 in India, the same surgery will cost the person USD 7,894 in Thailand, USD10,417 in Singapore, USD 23,938 in the US and USD 19,700 in Britian. |