It is now a well-received fact that patients come to India from different parts of the world for treatment as it is of expected quality and reasonable price when compared with many other countries. The term used for this growing industry, ‘Medical Tourism’, proved to be an irony. Tourism as a word is analogous to happiness and joy of travelling, but sickness is an undesired experience.
It is not a matter of choice but a need, which a patient is forced into when he or she falls sick. Therefore, the term ‘Medical Value Travel’ was rightly coined for patients travelling outside their native city or country seeking good quality care at considerably low cost.
As per data on the government website (pib.nic.in), the number of Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India on Medical Visa were 75, 688 in 2014, 1,34,344 in 2015 and 2,01,333 in 2016, showing a growth of 166%. However, as per 2017 data published by Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the total number of non-residents who availed treatment in India was 4,59,735 for 2015-16 which shows a significant variance against medical visas issued for the same period.
The top five areas of earnings per patient in terms of treatment were Hematology with a revenue of $10315, cardiology ($4159), paediatric surgery ($4040), plastic and reconstructive surgery ($3292) and dentistry with a revenue of $3097. Various leading industry reports indicate that the average market cap of medical value travel in India is $ 3 billion which is poised to grow three- fold in the next three years.
As of May 2017, out of the 465 accredited NABH hospitals across the country, the top 10 cities with most NABH hospitals are Delhi + Gurgaon with 60 hospitals, Mumbai + Pune with 37 hospitals, Hyderabad 32, Bangalore 31, Mumbai 22, Noida 16 and Chennai and Pune with 15 hospitals each. This busts the popular myth that Mumbai is potentially the medical value travel hub for India. Delhi and Gurgaon together lead with the most number of NABH accredited hospitals followed by Mumbai and Pune combined and then followed by Hyderabad.
