Fortis Hospitals to expand medical tourism further

India has emerged as a key destination for medical travelers and the industry is set to more than double in the next four years, according to the market estimates. “We are flooded with enquiries from the US, Europe and African countries as we can offer advanced medical procedures like bariatric surgery at as low as one-tenth of the cost in their countries,” said Kishor Joshi, the deputy general manager (international business) at Fortis Hospitals.Of late, a lot of health travelers are coming from the Middle East as well as waiting time in India is almost nil compared to Europe and the US and infrastructure facilities are comparable to developed countries. According to a study by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the current market size of the Indian medical tourism is Rs45 billion and this is expected to cross Rs108 billion by 2015 when the inflow of medical tourists crosses 3.2 million from the current level of 850,000. Fortis claims 30 to 40 per cent market share in this segment. Since medical care has become prohibitively expensive for those who do not have the protection of insurance cover in countries like the US, Joshi feels the trend would continue for many more years. Several hospitals have also sprung up in India offering world class treatment facilities. “Healthcare spend is increasingly going up in the developing countries and we can attract many more tourists to India taking advantage of the competency of our doctors and healthcare workers as well as excellent infrastructure facilities available with our hospitals,” he said. Fortis with a chain of 62 hospitals spread across the country has tailor-made packages to address specific needs of different geographies. It also claims expertise across a wide array of clinical specialities and has accreditation from the US-based Joint Commission International (JCI).“We are strong in joint replacement surgery like hip resurfacing and replacement. We also receive a lot of international patients seeking cardiac surgery and neurosurgery. We also deal with all major health insurance companies,” Joshi said. From / Gulf Today