- Satisfied customers and free publicity in the western media for top Indian hospitals for delivering on price and quality.
- A newly-created autonomous Indian accreditation board to set standards in safety and patient care. Expects to accredit 50 hospitals this year. Simultaneously, a drive for American accreditation by leading hospitals.
- Price-banding exercise by a cii-affiliated industry body, the Indian Healthcare Federation, completed late last year, indicates fair prices for standard treatments in a good hospital. This was preceded by complaints of wide variation in prices and indiscriminate fee-hikes.
- Imminent launch of campaign using brochures and bbc advertorials by the tourism ministry to project Indian healthcare. Will disseminate case-studies and the new pricing information. Targeting GP practices in western countries, especially those run by Indian doctors.
- Growing interest by foreign governments and public healthcare bodies in checking out Indian healthcare. Side-trip to hospitals being included in official itineraries, like the now-mandatory visit to Infosys.
Two tbsp Of Good Sense
India's hospital scene is hotting up. With a bit more push, the tourists will come in a deluge.
What's Not
- Industry and government not working in a coordinated manner. Progress so far driven mainly by individual players and ministries. Inter-ministerial taskforce on medical tourism, with representatives from six ministries and the private sector, set up two years ago, has little to show.
- The much-touted new 'medical visa' is a disaster, say facilitators, more expensive and cumbersome than a regular visa, and requiring an array of documents.
- Medical tourists still negotiate snake-like immigration queues at airports, despite promises of a fast-track for the last two years. Recently, a Pakistani child needing a liver transplant took an hour and a half to clear at Delhi airport.
- Government failing to deliver on quality of airports, roads and infrastructure which don't make India look like a destination for "world class" medical treatment.
- Much more needs to be done to enforce norms, standards and ethical practices in a notoriously unregulated healthcare sector. The Challenges
- Big breakthroughs depend on insurance companies, corporations and public healthcare bodies like Britain's nhs picking up the tab for medical treatment in India. Such deals have so far proved elusive, but the industry maintains they will happen.
- Handful of top doctors' names crop up in testimonials by medical tourists. Hospitals will have to maintain quality as numbers increase. It takes thousands of testimonials to build a brand, but just a few brickbats can destroy one.
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