Low-cost treatment, quality care draw many from West Asia, Africa, South East Asia
The number of international patients arriving in the City for treatment has doubled in the last two years and is expected to go up sharply in the next two to three years, specialists from different hospitals have told Deccan Herald.
While 200-250 international patients on average would visit Bangalore in 2011, 400-500 patients have visited the City so far this year. All hospitals this newspaper spoke to have registered an increase.
Dr Devi Shetty, Director of Narayana Health, says the number of international patients to his hospital has doubled. “This has to do with India’s emergence as an important health destination and Bangalore emerging as medical tourist hub. Indian hospitals offer quality care at highly affordable rates, specific reason why more people are coming here. Bangalore, in particular, has seen a significant rise because of good air connectivity to destinations in West Asia, Africa, South Asia and South East Asia,” Dr Shetty explains.
“Once the international airport was built and new routes were introduced, people started flocking to the City. The last two years have seen more routes and far better connectivity than in the initial phase of the new airport, another reason for higher arrival of international patients.”
Dr Vivek Jawali of Fortis Hospitals confirms the rise in international patients.
Across disciplines
“Fortis is seeing high number of patients across disciplines and not just for cardiac treatment. Apart from patients coming in from the West, many now come from Africa, West Asia, Afghanistan and even the former Soviet republics,” he says.
“Our cost of treatment is almost 10 times lesser than that in the West and the same level of care is offered. So people prefer to come to India. Bangalore became popular because of cardiac care, but now it is hosting patients for even disciplines like orthopaedics. The variety of specialists in the city has increased.”
Manipal Hospital, too, has seen a rise in admission of international patients. The hospital’s specialist, Dr Murali Krishna, says: “Initially, people would come for cardiac care, now non-cardiac patients have increased mainly by word of mouth messages. There is realisation that advanced care is being offered at a fraction of what it costs in Europe or America. If a surgery costs around USD 15,000-20,000, in India we offer the same at less than USD 5,000.”
The government-run Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, too, has seen a rise in international patients. Says its director, C N Manjunath: “The increase is about 10 per cent. We see about 120 patients a year. We expect a lot more patients in the next few years as it is now being recognised that our costs of treatment are far lower than what private hospitals offer — lower by almost 40 per cent. We see patients, predominantly children, from Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Kenya and even the UK. Open heart surgeries on young children are performed at very few places in India and Bangalore is one of them.”
