Medical tourism to India: An analysis
Friday, 29 April 2011
Prof. Muhammad Mahboob Ali and Anita Medhekar
Tourism has become one of the world's largest service sector industries with enormous potentials for further growth. However, it is sensitive to external factors, like terrorism, natural disasters and various viruses which can cripple the local economy at destinations in the developing countries. Factors such as globalisation, education, high disposable income, industrialisation, opening up of foreign markets, better advertising and strategic marketing policies and techniques have contributed to the growth of Special Interest Medical Tourism as an important niche service sector for the economy. Medical Tourism is one of the fastest growing healthcare industries. The world is in a healthcare crisis, given the ageing population, increasing cost and long waiting patients from developed countries as well as from poor countries such as Bangladesh. Low quality or absence of health care in these countries is making choice for patients who have been travelling to developing countries such as India, China and Thailand. The main objectives are to obtain immediate health care, plastic surgery, organ replacement and reproductive - IVF procedures which are of higher quality and affordable. The medical care is combined with related tourism activity such eco-tourism and spiritual. Medical tourism has grown rapidly in the past decade. High costs, poor services and long waiting lists at home; new technology and skills in destination countries alongside reduced transport costs and internet marketing have all played a pivotal role in the expansion of medical tourism. Health Tourism is defined as "the organised travel outside one's local environment for the maintenance, enhancement or restoration of the individual wellbeing in mind and body". A subset of this is Medical Tourism which is defined as "the organised travel outside one's natural healthcare jurisdiction for the enhancement or restoration of the individual's health through medical intervention" (Carrerra and Bridges, 2006, p.449). Government and private sector studies in India estimate that medical tourism could bring between US $1 billion and $2 billion into the country by 2012. The reports estimate that medical tourism to India is growing by 30 per cent a year. The rise of medical tourism emphasises the medical - outsourcing privatisation of health care, the growing dependence on technology, uneven access to health resources and the accelerated globalisation of both health care and tourism. Globalisation of medical specialties such as high-tech medical infrastructure and doctor's expertise is becoming an accepted aspect of 21st century. Here are the statistics of remittance on medical ground in India and also total remittance out flowed from Bangladesh: The growth of medical tourism as an important export sector in India's National Health Policy which declared that treatment of foreign patients is legally an "expor". This helps to ensure good quality of medical treatment in India. Many Bangladeshis are going to India as they are getting relaitvely better treatment at an affordable cost which is not available in Bangladesh. For this study when we did our survey among 1250 patients, they told us that the most important thing about Bangladesh is that nurses ,brothers and ward boys act like musclemen and treat the patients as hostages. The first group do not care doctors and mostly avoided to provide good services in government medical college hospitals. In private medical colleges and nursing homes situation is also not at all satisfactory. Rather they charge huge amount without ensuring good services. Another interesting finding of the study is that most of the diaognastic centers and lab tests are charging high which is relatively one-third of that in any good institute in India. Reason behind low price in India is that there is no system of giving percentage or bribe to the physicians. Moreover, patients alleged that in Bangladesh, in rare cases though actions may be taken against doctors, but, no action has ever been taken against nurses, brothers, ward boys for their negligence of duties. Moreover, there is a middleman in the government hospitals who suck poor patients' money. After analysing the data it is observed that in most of the cases the patients did not receive basic medical treatment in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has declared Health Policy. But it needs to be holistic nature. It gives more emphasis on doctor's duty only. Services rendered by others such as nurses, brothers, biotechnologists and ward boys and moreover hospital management are weak in Bangladesh. As such huge amount of fund is out flowed from the country. Recently some good hospitals have been established in both private and public sectors in Bangladesh. But relatively their numbers are too scanty to meet the demands of a highly populated country. The government may put emphasis to develop medical tourism in Bangladesh. As such they should establish joint venture medical college in collaboration with foreign medical institutescolleges. Moreover, private entrepreneurs can invest in this sector as it stills remains an unexplored market. Besides number of doctors, quality and dutiful nurses, brothers and ward boys need to he increased. Health management can be improved through strategic formulation and implementation of the government policy. There is no other alternative but to take holistic approach to develop this sector. Medical tourism in Bangladesh may be developed for which it can be taken as a part of Vision 2021.This will help raise national income of Bangladesh. The writers Prof. Muhammad Mahboob Ali is a professor in the Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology, and Anika Medhekar is a senior lecturer in the Central Queensland University, Australia.
Tourism has become one of the world's largest service sector industries with enormous potentials for further growth. However, it is sensitive to external factors, like terrorism, natural disasters and various viruses which can cripple the local economy at destinations in the developing countries. Factors such as globalisation, education, high disposable income, industrialisation, opening up of foreign markets, better advertising and strategic marketing policies and techniques have contributed to the growth of Special Interest Medical Tourism as an important niche service sector for the economy. Medical Tourism is one of the fastest growing healthcare industries. The world is in a healthcare crisis, given the ageing population, increasing cost and long waiting patients from developed countries as well as from poor countries such as Bangladesh. Low quality or absence of health care in these countries is making choice for patients who have been travelling to developing countries such as India, China and Thailand. The main objectives are to obtain immediate health care, plastic surgery, organ replacement and reproductive - IVF procedures which are of higher quality and affordable. The medical care is combined with related tourism activity such eco-tourism and spiritual. Medical tourism has grown rapidly in the past decade. High costs, poor services and long waiting lists at home; new technology and skills in destination countries alongside reduced transport costs and internet marketing have all played a pivotal role in the expansion of medical tourism. Health Tourism is defined as "the organised travel outside one's local environment for the maintenance, enhancement or restoration of the individual wellbeing in mind and body". A subset of this is Medical Tourism which is defined as "the organised travel outside one's natural healthcare jurisdiction for the enhancement or restoration of the individual's health through medical intervention" (Carrerra and Bridges, 2006, p.449). Government and private sector studies in India estimate that medical tourism could bring between US $1 billion and $2 billion into the country by 2012. The reports estimate that medical tourism to India is growing by 30 per cent a year. The rise of medical tourism emphasises the medical - outsourcing privatisation of health care, the growing dependence on technology, uneven access to health resources and the accelerated globalisation of both health care and tourism. Globalisation of medical specialties such as high-tech medical infrastructure and doctor's expertise is becoming an accepted aspect of 21st century. Here are the statistics of remittance on medical ground in India and also total remittance out flowed from Bangladesh: The growth of medical tourism as an important export sector in India's National Health Policy which declared that treatment of foreign patients is legally an "expor". This helps to ensure good quality of medical treatment in India. Many Bangladeshis are going to India as they are getting relaitvely better treatment at an affordable cost which is not available in Bangladesh. For this study when we did our survey among 1250 patients, they told us that the most important thing about Bangladesh is that nurses ,brothers and ward boys act like musclemen and treat the patients as hostages. The first group do not care doctors and mostly avoided to provide good services in government medical college hospitals. In private medical colleges and nursing homes situation is also not at all satisfactory. Rather they charge huge amount without ensuring good services. Another interesting finding of the study is that most of the diaognastic centers and lab tests are charging high which is relatively one-third of that in any good institute in India. Reason behind low price in India is that there is no system of giving percentage or bribe to the physicians. Moreover, patients alleged that in Bangladesh, in rare cases though actions may be taken against doctors, but, no action has ever been taken against nurses, brothers, ward boys for their negligence of duties. Moreover, there is a middleman in the government hospitals who suck poor patients' money. After analysing the data it is observed that in most of the cases the patients did not receive basic medical treatment in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government has declared Health Policy. But it needs to be holistic nature. It gives more emphasis on doctor's duty only. Services rendered by others such as nurses, brothers, biotechnologists and ward boys and moreover hospital management are weak in Bangladesh. As such huge amount of fund is out flowed from the country. Recently some good hospitals have been established in both private and public sectors in Bangladesh. But relatively their numbers are too scanty to meet the demands of a highly populated country. The government may put emphasis to develop medical tourism in Bangladesh. As such they should establish joint venture medical college in collaboration with foreign medical institutescolleges. Moreover, private entrepreneurs can invest in this sector as it stills remains an unexplored market. Besides number of doctors, quality and dutiful nurses, brothers and ward boys need to he increased. Health management can be improved through strategic formulation and implementation of the government policy. There is no other alternative but to take holistic approach to develop this sector. Medical tourism in Bangladesh may be developed for which it can be taken as a part of Vision 2021.This will help raise national income of Bangladesh. The writers Prof. Muhammad Mahboob Ali is a professor in the Atish Dipankar University of Science and Technology, and Anika Medhekar is a senior lecturer in the Central Queensland University, Australia.