India emerging as a global hub of Medical Tourism

Kolkata, May 28 (UNI) India is no longer a hub of tourism offering just an eyeful of sights, but is fast emerging as a major global hub of medical tourism.

Initiatives have been launched in the sphere of Medical Tourism in partnership with the private sector to make India emerge as a major global hub, according to a government document.

With non-stop pool of medical talents and centres surfacing in India in recent years, India is projecting itself as a hot spot for medical tourism. It boasts of having world class doctors and hospitals as well. The cost of treatment here is 1/5th of the costs incurred in the West.

Another factor that goes in India's favour is that since time immemorial India has been a hot spot for tourists and its popularity as a tourist destination has been going up ever since.

Moreover, India has in its kitty the wisdom of eastern healthcare wisdom along with the expertise of western medicine.

To establish India onto the map of global medical tourism, the Ministry of Tourism has several initiatives lined up. To this effect, the ministry has requested all the state tourism departments to promote medical tourism through suitable packaging of identified best hospitals and price banding for various specific treatments.

Even, a new category of visa ''Medical Visa'' ('M'-Visa), has been introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which can be given for specific purposes to foreign tourists coming to India for medical treatment.

The Indian Healthcare Federation, in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry, has also prepared a guide on select Indian cities and corresponding hospitals, and a guide on suggested uniform price band for different speciality services-cardiology and cardiac surgery, minimal invasive surgery&therapeutic endoscopy, orthopaedics and oncology- for Indian hospitals for promoting health tourism.

Moreover, medical and health facilities available in India have been such as World Travel Mart, London; ITB Berlin etc for medical tourists.

For promoting India as medical and health tourism destination, the Ministry of Tourism has recently produced a CD ROM on medical tourism. brochures&CDs on body, mind and soul, which covers the traditional system of medicine have already been produced and circulated extensively by the Ministry.

UNI