Vast potential for medical tourism in India: Survey

Mumbai, Feb 21 (UNI) India stands to gain in the growing 150 billion US dollar global medical tourism industry due to its cost-effective healthcare system and traditional methods and medicines, according to an Exim Bank survey.

The survey revealed that India has skilled healthcare professionals, cost-effective solutions and strong IT systems with a success rate that is comparable with international standards at a fraction of prices quoted in developed countries.

Supplementing India's modern healthcare system is the traditional system like Ayurveda, Siddha, Yoga and Naturopathy which is also gaining converts among global patients. India also has an added advantage of diverse tourist destinations to cater to the overall well-being of medical tourists and multi-lingual skills among many of the professionals, it said.

The flow of demand for healthcare tourism from developed countries towards developing countries has increased due to an increasing number of un-insured healthcare population in the developed countries with an increasing premium expense for coverage under medical malpractice insurance.

An estimated 5,00,000 international healthcare tourists, including NRIs, travelled to India in 2006 generating revenues of Rs 2,400 crore in 2006, it added.

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