What makes India a leading Medical Tourism Destination

For a country to establish its credibility as a medical tourism destination, it needs a world-class healthcare ecosystem and proven prowess to conduct superlative medical procedures. The following are some of the factors that make Indian healthcare services a medical tourist magnet.

International Level Healthcare Services

India has a strong health infrastructure with many state-of-the-art healthcare facilities offering treatment across specialities. Hospitals are equipped with the latest technologies needed to conduct complex medical procedures, and have exceptional facilities for post-operative care. The facilities are managed by a highly skilled and adept healthcare workforce and administration staff led by reputed and world renowned medical practitioners and surgeons.The facilities ensure quality treatment services for a wide array of ailments, ranging from cosmetic enhancements to complicated cardiac, orthopaedic, and spinal surgeries.

There are around 37 Joint Commission International (JCI) accredited hospitals and 513 National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH) accredited hospitals in India. Clinical outcomes at leading NABH hospitals are comparable to those at internationally recognized facilities. While most of the JCI hospitals are concentrated in a few cities in the country, including Delhi and Mumbai, India is further focusing on increasing the number of JCI-accredited hospitals across other major cities of the country.

Superlative Allied Sectors

To deliver quality treatment, it takes a lot more than just a good hospital. India does not only have international quality healthcare services to its advantage but it also has robust allied sectors which make the healthcare ecosystem complete. These include a strong pharmaceutical and diagnostic sector, rehabilitation services, a thriving quality medical devices industry, and a growing focus on medical R&D.

Diagnostics and medical devices sectors

India has cumulatively attracted over USD 25,300 million in its three key healthcare pillars, that of Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, Hospitals and Diagnostics Centres, and Medical and Surgical Appliances in the last decade. Estimated at USD 11 billion, India happens to be the 4th largest medical device market in Asia, and is projected to reach USD 50 billion by 2025. The diagnostics segment in the country is valued at USD 4 billion, with 25% of the market being capitalised by leading organised players.

Pharmaceutical industry

Exporting medicines to over 200 countries, India is known as the pharmacy of the world. With a market size of USD 41 billion, the sector is third largest globally by volume, with a 33% lower cost of production than the United States. The quality compliance rate of Indian Pharmaceutical industry is extremely high. India has 664 US FDA approved facilities, over 2,050 World Health Organisation-Good Manufacturing Practices (WHO-GMP) approved plants and over 697 European GMP compliant plants. Consequently, India is the world capital of producing affordable, but high quality medicines. With 20% of global generic drugs exports by volume, the industry is world’s largest provider of generic medicines, producing 60,000 generic brands across 60 therapeutic categories. Out of the top 20 global generic companies, 8 are Indian. Furthermore, around 62% of the global demand for vaccines is met by India. All these factors make Indian healthcare service delivery add the essential reliability factor to high-end medical treatment, a decisive factor for medical tourism

Low Cost of Treatment

Affordability of high quality treatment is clearly the differentiator in the domain of medical tourism. There is a stark difference in the cost of common medical procedures offered in India in comparison with close competitors in the segment. Of 19 medical procedures, ranging from heart bypass and spinal fusion to liposuction and IVF treatment, India records the lowest price in 13 of them and moderate price in the remaining 6.

For instance, on comparing the cost of treatment in India with that in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, and South Korea, heart bypass would cost USD 7900 against USD 15000, USD 12100, USD 17200, USD 13900, and USD 26,000, respectively. Similarly, hip resurfacing would cost approximately USD 9,700 in India compared to USD 16,350 in Singapore and USD 19,500 in South Korea. This is the major factor which makes it possible for International tourists to opt for elective treatment in India.