Superbug to feast on medical visas?

CHENNAI: With reports of the NDM-1 superbug getting stronger every day, India’s business from medical tourism looks set to take a serious dip, as per medical consultants and hospitals. If that turns out to be true, Tamil Nadu probably will take the biggest beating as its capital has been the city that hosts maximum number of medical visas.

The average number of medical visa cases that Chennai receives a month is 600, which is double the corresponding figure in metros like Delhi and Mumbai. In the case of Bangalore, it is 400.

A senior health department official says that all international patients should come under the 2005-initiated concept of medical visa, but a majority of them come in through the tourist visa and then get themselves admitted for treatment. “A tourist visa is easier to get than a medical visa,” he points out. In fact, a round-up survey shows that many hospitals are unaware of these visa rules.

Dr Mahesh Vakamudi, COO of the Sri Ramachandra Medical College, says his establishment is fearing the onset of a huge growth curb. This, when the number of international patients at the college hospital already crossed 300 this year as against 365 treated last year. “The figures were set to double this year, but the international media is hyping up the superbug issue in a way that our medical tourists figures will slow down for some time before the damaging reports die. In fact, I have been getting calls from my friends in the US to verify the truth behind the superbug report,” he adds.

Medical tourism as a concept started taking shape in our country 2005 by when there was a general awareness about India’s ace medical scene among foreigners. Soon, hospitals started practising a marketing initiative to rope in as many patients from abroad as possible. At about the same time, there also emerged the concept of ‘medical consultants’ with middlemen linking hospitals and international patients and providing them the end-to-end facility of arranging medical appointments, stay, pick-up and sightseeing.

Today, hospitals in India have made tie-ups through health ministries abroad, besides the Internet and local hospitals in those countries, so as to send international patients to India. Almost all the bigger private hospitals have an agreement with physicians and clinics in countries from which they see a steady stream of patients. Hospitals like MIOT take their marketing one step further by employing Arabic-speaking students who hang around at the Chennai Airport. They target passengers from the Middle East who come clueless about healthcare scenario in the city and take them in waiting MIOT cars. “I get pocket money,” says one such student.

There are now a barrage of consultants operating in the medical tourism business who have found websites registered with most common search terms like ‘medical tourism in India’ so that a simple Google search will lead even the uninitiated to these consultants’ websites. Sai Medi Services that hosts www.medicaltourism-india.in highlights how treatments in India are almost 75 per cent cheaper. Says the portal: “A dental implant will cost at least 75 per cent less in India as compared to the US. An MRI will cost about $60 in India and about $700 in the US. An open-heart surgery will cost just $4,500 in India as compared to $18,000 in the US. Cranio-facial surgery or a hip replacement costs about $4300 in an Indian hospital, while it may cost upwards of $13,000 in America. A kidney transplant can cost just 500 euros, while it may cost you about 8,500 euros in Britain.”

For a hospital like MIOT, a chunk of the revenue comes only from foreign patients, while the percentage revenue in this category is 20 for those like Apollo and 15 for SRMC. Hospitals like Frontier Lifeline see an average of 15 international patients per month, while it is four times the figure in Madras Medical Mission.

Apollo Hospitals, the prime mover of medicine in India and one that hosts the largest chunk of foreign patients through its set-ups across the country, is not willing to comment on the NMD-1 trails in India, citing that its top bosses are busy.

International tourists for medical purposes to India have been seeing significant growth. In fact, the country attracted an estimated one lakh medical tourists in 2005 as per a CII-McKinsey report, which predicted a 30 per cent growth rate. But, for now, the superbug has been a dampener.

Nakun Jain of Delhi-based Healthline India says they usually receive 20-30 queries a day from residents abroad, but lately the numbers have dropped by half.

Bharat Wankhede, CEO of Mumbai-based Med Access India, voices a similar concern. Wankhede’s firm was able to bring in 5,000 patients last year and had already brought almost 4,700 patients this year.