India’s medical tourism sector attracts patients from Gulf

DUBAI: India’s medical tourism sector, set to generate USD 2 billion, has evinced growing interest from patients fromGulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries due to excellent treatment skills of Indian doctors and low cost.

The Indian medical tourism industry is projected to reach USD 2 billion with an estimated 3,200,000 medical value travellers arriving in India by 2015 growing at an annual rate of 30 per cent, according to experts.

Recently, Dubai-based Emirates airlines teamed up with Apollo Hospitals, to connect international patients with quality healthcare services in India.

“The proven Indian clinical competencies give India a huge competitive advantage. We have seen the number of patients visiting us from GCC region growing at a rapid pace. In the last few quarters we have seen a remarkable increase from UAE, Qatar and Oman,” said Dr. K. Hariprasad, CEO, Apollo Hospitals.

“Comparing global prices for medical treatment, India leads in the race for providing quality healthcare services at affordable prices. A heart bypass surgery in India costs USD 6,500, while in the US it costs between USD 30,000 and USD 80,000. This is a huge, untapped market, not just for therapeutic medical tourism like Ayurveda, but also for curative treatment,” he said.

GCC’s member states include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

As part of the joint venture with Emirates Airlines, the patients and their attendants from 19 countries across Middle East and Africa can visit the hospital’s flagship locations in Chennai, Hyderabad, New Delhi, Kolkata,Ahmadabad and Bangalore to avail specially formulated fares for round-trip flights on Emirates.

Chennai headquartered, Apollo Hospitals, has been accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI) USA.

Apollo Hospital, Chennai caters to the patients travelling from Middle East with various specialty services it is recognised for. The hospital’s Chennai unit performs the highest number of Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) cases with a very high success rate.