West Indian national gets new lease of life

West Indian national gets new lease of life

NEW DELHI, JAN 13 (PTI)

Left with only about a year to live due to a liver tumour, a 52-year-old West Indian from a Holland colony got a new lease of life in India after her husband donated part of his liver to save his wife.

After exhausting all options, including surfing the internet for medical choices, Beadjnamesea headed for India last December for a liver transplant and had a surgery done at a private hospital after her husband donated part of his liver to save her.

"They asked me to wait too long for a cadaver liver transplant," Beadjnamesea a resident of Aruba, said.

"They do not carry out live donor transplants," she said. The surgery was performed on January 10 in which 40 per cent of the liver from her husband was transplanted onto the patient. The liver takes about three weeks to regenerate in the donor.

The success rate of such transplants is about 90 per cent here which compares well with the western world. However, in Europe, cadaver transplants are encouraged as living donor transplants are more complex and expensive, Dr Subhas Gupta from Sir Gangaram Hospital, who operated on Beadjnamesea said.

Every week one or two liver transplants are done here in this hospital, Gupta said. In India, majority of transplants are from live donors. The hospital gets patients from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Burma and Saudi Arabia.

In Netherlands, patients are faced with long waiting lists. However it was not possible to wait in this case, he said.

Beadjnamesea's family searched the internet for options and finally decided to come to India.

Frenchman to walk taller after surgery in India

Frenchman to walk taller after surgery in India: "Frenchman to walk taller after surgery in India
GG2.NET NEWS [12/01/2006]

A SURGERY for cosmetic lengthening of legs was carried out for the first time ever in India when a French national visited New Delhi.

The patient, who was discharged on Wednesday, will add 2.8 inches to his 5 feet 4 inch frame by the end of April.

'We did the surgery last week. The patient will gain seven centimetres (2.8 inches) in height by April`s end,' said orthopaedic surgeon ON Nagi, Ganga Ram Hospital.

Nagi said the procedure, which cost Rs300,000, would have been three times more expensive in Europe.

The process involves cutting a layer of the bone of the two legs and attaching a metal frame with screws to the limbs. The rods of the frame can be lengthened, so that they pull the bone apart, creating a gap.

New bone cells form in this gap, increasing the length of the limb gradually, Nagi said. The doctor said the procedure was safe and had no side-effects. "

Duque upbeat on medical tourism prospects

Duque upbeat on medical tourism prospects

By Macon Ramos Araneta in Phillipines

MEDICAL tourism may be the catalyst to fuel the country’s economy in the near future.

Speaking before government officials and members of the medical industry during yesterday’s launching of the Philippine Medical Tourism Program (PMTP) at the Manila Diamond Hotel in Manila, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that a total of $2.8 trillion is generated annually by the healthcare sector, considered the largest globally.

He cited the booming medical tourism industry as a potential boost to the local economy.

“The Philippines offers several competitive advantages over our Asian neighbors in terms of human resources and eco-tourism,” Duque said.

He spoke highly of Filipino healthcare providers, describing them as well-trained, highly skilled, fluent in English and caring.

The health chief also noted the competitive prices of medical and surgical procedures in the country as favorable when placed alongside other Asia-Pacific countries in terms of rates and charges in the foreign exchange market.

More than the perks it can offer the country, health tourism, according to Duque, can revitalize the Philippine medical sector, and serve as an impetus for hospitals and services to improve their standards.

Duque remained optimistic about the medical industry’s potential to keep professionals from looking for work overseas.

“Hopefully, medical tourism will be an attractive strategy to reverse the current outward migration of our professionals. We hope to entice our new doctors to stay and lure back health workers who had international training and opted to work abroad.

He stressed the four words to spell success for medical tourism: cooperation, coordination, cohesion and innovation.

For his part, Ambassador Cesar Bautista, cochairman of the PMTP Private Public Partnership, regarded medical tourism as having the potential to be a P10 billion industry.

India to target 1 million more medical tourists by 2010 - Express Hospitality

India to target 1 million more medical tourists by 2010

India to target 1 million more medical tourists by 2010

EH Staff - Mumbai

The ministry of tourism has taken several steps to promote India as major health destination and targeted one million additional medical tourists by 2010. These arrivals could add extra foreign exchange up to Rs. 5,000-10,000 crore. Chairing the meeting of the Consultative Committee on tourism, Renuka Chowdhury, minister of state for tourism, said that in collaboration with the medical industry, price bending of Indian hospitals has been completed to ensure uniform and reasonable prices for a particular treatment. Accreditation of hospitals, maintainence required international standards for the treatment, has also been done in association with CII and medical industry. Medical visa for six months to one year stay for treatment in India has also been launched. Ministry of Tourism for the first time took representatives of the hospital sector to the World Travel Mart held recently in London, for projecting Indian health facilities. The ministry is also working on a campaign, soon to be launched in overseas markets, to project India as an attractive medical tourism destination. These efforts will result in popularising India as a medical tourism destination, she added.

Chowdhury informed the members that India has strategic advantage in the healthcare area which include world-class doctors and excellent health care infrastructure coming up in private sector, availability of traditional Ayurvedic and other Indian health care wisdom along with the expertise of Western medicine and competitive cost of the treatment which is almost 1/5th of the Western countries. She said that even today we are getting medical tourists from over 55 countries for cardiac surgeries, multi-organ transplants like renal, liver, heart, and bone marrow transplants.

The minister said the government has also set up expert committees for sorting out issues regarding medical insurance and further human resource development in the medical tourism area. Tour operators have been advised to include Ayurveda health destinations in their marketing ventures in view of increasing popularity of Ayurveda in Western countries. The ministry has also produced brochures and CD-roms on medical tourism. Quoting from India Vision 2020 Report, prepared by CII - Mckinsey, Chowdhury said that medical tourism could become a rival to the IT sector within the next decade earning huge foreign exchange for the country.

US National Undergoes Key Hole Shoulder Surgery in India - PR.com

US National Undergoes Key Hole Shoulder Surgery in India

Health care was outsourced to an Indian doctor and hospitals by a resident of North Carolina, Mr. Dave Hurd. He had a full thickness rotator cuff tear repaired for a 10th of the cost in the US.

Chennai, India, December 24, 2005 --(PR.COM)-- The injured shoulder of an American citizen was fixed by a key-hole surgery in a private hospital in the city recently. Mr Dave Bryce Hurd, a civil construction engineer from North Carolina, had injured his shoulder 20 years ago while rowing a boat and sustained a injury again while mowing a lawn this year.

Unable to afford the surgery and at the same time unwilling to tolerate the pain, he flew down to Chennai to be operated at Venkataeswara Hospital. He underwent a shoulder arthroscopy and rotatorcuff surgery early this week to rectify his problem. Speaking to reporters in the city on Friday, Dr A.K. Venkatachalam, consultant orthopaedic surgeon of the hospital claimed this was the first time an American had undergone a similar surgery in Chennai.

As soon as he was told that the surgery would cost US $20,000 (Rs 10 lakh), Mr Hurd started looking for an alternative solution and located the doctor on the Internet. Soon after he arrived at Chennai, the doctor detected that he had a full thickness rotator cuff tear, through a shoulder arthroscopy. It was repaired using suture anchors and sutures.

Early this year, a British mountaineer, Mark Carr, underwent a surgery to decompress his tendons and remove bony overgrowth from arthritis of his collarbone joint, Dr Venkatachalam told reporters. With his left hand in a sling, the patient said he spent just Rs 95,000 while he had spent almost Rs 10 lakh for a similar surgery on his right hand in the US some years ago.

“Cost factor, personalised care, effcient treatment at par with the best in the west were factors responsible for visits of foreign medical tourists to India," says DR.Thillai Vallal, director of the Venkataeswara hospital where the patient underwent the surgery.

He claimed his hospital was the only one in the country where the very first ‘high flexion knee replacement’ surgery was done in September this year on a doctor from Lucknow. Other Doctors and hospitals claims remain unsubstantiated as they have not used the only patented knee prosthesis that allows high flexion. Dave Hurd the patient, with his left hand in a sling, said he had spent nearly USD 20,000 for a similar surgery on his right hand in the US some years ago. "Now, I had to shell out only one-tenth of the money I would have spent for similar surgery in my country," said the patient.

Contact Information
A.K.Venkatachalam
Knee & Shoulder clinic
Email Knee & Shoulder clinic
00 91 44 22530855, 00 91 9282165002

To India And Back, A Second Chance At Life

To India And Back, A Second Chance At Life

By Carey London

Traveling thousands of miles to have surgery done in a foreign country may sound absurd. Still, lower costs and availability have attracted more and more Americans to go abroad for elective procedures.
Robert Vacca, 55, of Sag Harbor, recently returned from a trip to India, where he had hip resurfacing done on both of his hips. The procedure has not been approved in the States, but Vacca is living proof the surgery works.
He went from nearly wheelchair bound to reclaiming his athletic nature in a matter of weeks.
Vacca first started manifesting symptoms of bone disease when he was 14 years old. He had always been an athlete, but his brittle bones caused bone chips in various joints. Doctors at the time did not know the cause of the problem, but they treated him through surgery. He underwent six operations in the 1970s.
By the mid-1990s, his hips started to bother him and “they got progressively worse every year,” he said. “I was able to compensate until this summer, when my body stopped me from working.” Vacca was caddying at the Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton.
Dr. Stephen Petruccelli, a chiropractor at the Sag Harbor Gym, had been working with Vacca before his surgery and is currently helping him rehabilitate.
Dr. Petruccelli learned of hip resurfacing from a patient who had seen a special on “60 Minutes” about how people worldwide are traveling to India for this procedure.
Additional research led the doctor to a New York Times article about Dr. Vijay Bose, of Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India, who is largely regarded as the leading resurfacing specialist in the world.
Dr. Petruccelli e-mailed the doctor, who quickly responded. “I sent him a picture of Bob’s X-rays and Dr. Bose said [Vacca] was an excellent candidate for the procedure,” the chiropractor recalled.
According to Dr. Bose, Caucasians are predisposed to bone disease. Vacca’s condition is genetic but his intense athletic background accelerated the disease. He was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks, whose star player at the time was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Doctors say hip resurfacing is more suitable for younger patients, between the ages of 17 and 70, because it is less invasive and permits a greater range of post-operative movement.
Bone is not removed, and it does not require revision surgeries. Physical activity, such as sports and exercise, is encouraged shortly after operation.
On the other hand, conventional hip replacement, the standard procedure offered in the U.S., has had a reasonably high success rate among elderly patients over 70 years old. Younger patients usually require revision surgeries because the prosthesis fails rapidly.
Dr. Bose has done around 450 hip resurfacing procedures. He trained with the procedure’s creators, Derek Mcminn and Ronan Treacy, in Birmingham, England, in the mid-1990s. He listed three advantages to hip resurfacing over hip replacement.
“The first is that no plastic (polyethylene) is used like in conventional hip replacement. Since an anatomical sized ‘metal on metal’ bearing is used, it lasts for a very long time . . . The anatomy and biomechanics after resurfacing mimic a normal hip very closely,” he said.
A metal cap is fitted over the end of the thighbone, which is fitted into a metal socket in the hip.
The second advantage is that patients are urged to be physically active after the surgery, he continued. Regular activities such as sitting on the floor or crossing one’s legs are also encouraged, whereas after hip replacement, the patient must restrict movement to prevent dislocation and “prolong the life of a prosthesis.”
Another benefit of resurfacing is that bone stock is improved because no bone is taken, unlike in hip replacement, where the head and the neck of the thighbone are removed, said Dr. Bose. “It has been proven that bone stock actually increases after hip resurfacing due to the restoration of normal biomechanics in the hip and proximal femur.”
Lastly, it is believed that bone improves over time after hip resurfacing because “the polyethylene ‘wear particles’ do not damage the surrounding bone like in conventional hip replacement,” he said.
Hip resurfacing takes less than two hours and patients can resume strenuous physical activity in about three to six weeks.
Hip degeneration has several causes but the predominant one is genetics. Vacca, though “typical” in terms of his genetic predisposition, was a more unusual case because he had problems in both hips. About 30% of patients have degeneration in both hips.
While the procedure has been embraced in India, Australia, Europe, and some parts of Asia, it is still waiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, “which can take years and years and years,” Dr. Petruccelli said. “I think a lot of it is that the doctors in this country are resistant to change.”
But while the FDA continues to study the procedure, Americans are going overseas to get it done.
Out of about 200 hip resurfacing procedures Dr. Bose will do this year, he estimated that 50 of those patients are Americans. In fact, so many people from the U.S. are coming to India for this procedure that Apollo Hospital is reportedly building an international wing to house them.
“I have no idea why American doctors are hesitant to embrace this procedure apart from the fact that this development occurred outside the U.S.,” said Dr. Bose. “I get the impression that the U.S. is much more resistant to foreign technologies when compared to home grown technologies. However, things will definitely change and it is only a matter of time before the U.S. embraces this medical innovation.”
Hip resurfacing is available in the U.S. through clinical trials, but the cost is staggering, fetching anywhere from $28,000 to $32,000. In India, the procedure is a little under $6000.
Vacca paid $12,000 for his two surgeries, 14 days in the hospital, anesthesia, and prescription drugs. “All I had to pay for was airfare, laundry, and a couple of extra blood tests,” he added.
Money aside, he had some other unfamiliar hospital experiences.
“When I arrived, no one asked me if I had insurance, no one inquired as to my method of payment, and no one asked me to fill out one form,” Vacca recalled. “When I asked who should I give the bank draft to, I was told, ‘That’s not important right now. You have surgery in the morning. Take care of it when you feel settled.’”
Dr. Bose met with his patient for an hour a day before the first surgery to discuss his condition and the procedures. On October 4, Vacca had his right hip repaired. Four days later, his left hip was repaired.
Dr. Bose checked on his patient twice a day, until Vacca was transferred to Fisherman’s Cove, a lavish resort spa overlooking the Indian Ocean for additional recovery. He was there a week before returning home to finish up rehabilitation.
“The entire service industry in India as a way of life is totally dedicated,” said Vacca. “When it comes to Americans coming in the hospital they seem to be even more dedicated to making us feel at home.”
The greatest disadvantage to traveling abroad for surgery is the generous travel time, in Vacca’s case, a 20-hour flight.
But with his quality of life dramatically improved, Vacca has no regrets.
Before the surgery, he was bending forward to relieve the pressure and pain on his hips. Three months following his operations Vacca is standing much taller and is once again mobile and pain free.
“I noticed he was about three to four inches taller when I first saw him get off the plane from India,” said Dr. Petruccelli.
“I know that I’ve been given another chance to take care of this body and to enable it to function for these remaining years,” said Vacca. “I’m going to be working out regularly, getting in shape and keeping my body in shape because I appreciate so much that I’m pain free and completely healthy in my hips.
“I want to stay active and stay in shape and appreciate all of the things I can do because I know what it’s like to be stopped.”

Guardian Unlimited Is health tourism the future?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Is health tourism the future?: "This UK patient avoided the NHS list and flew to India for a heart bypass. Is health tourism the future?

Randeep Ramesh in Bangalore
Tuesday February 1, 2005
The Guardian

Three months ago George Marshall fretted about the choice offered by his doctor in Britain. Diagnosed with coronary heart disease, the violin repairer from Bradford was told he could either wait up to six months for a heart bypass operation on the National Health Service or pay £19,000 to go under the scalpel immediately.

In the end, Mr Marshall chose to outsource his operation to India. Last month he flew 5,000 miles to the southern Indian city of Bangalore where surgeons at the Wockhardt hospital and heart institute took a piece of vein from his arm to repair the thinning arteries of his heart. The cost was £4,800, including the flight.

Article continues
"Everyone's been really great here. I have been in the NHS and gone private in Britain in the past, but I can say that the care and facilities in India are easily comparable," says Mr Marshall, sitting in hospital-blue pyjamas. "I'd have no problem coming again."

The 73-year-old found the hospital in Bangalore after a few hours surfing the internet. Mr Marshall decided to come after an email conversation with Wockhardt's vice-president and a chat with other "medical tourists" from Britain who had undergone surgery in the hospital.

"Once I knew others had come I thought, why not? In Europe hospitals in Germany and Belgium would do the operation for less than doctors in Britain. But Europe was still more expensive than here. And the staff speak English in India."

With patients such as Mr Marshall willing to travel across the globe to get treatment sooner or more cheaply than they could at home, Indian hospital groups see a huge market for their services.

A study by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and McKinsey consultants estimated "medical tourism" could be worth 100bn rupees (£1.21bn) by 2012. Last year some 150,000 foreigners visited India for treatment, with the number rising by 15% a year, says Zakariah Ahmed, an analyst who helped compile the report,

With a large pool of highly trained doctors and low treatment prices, healthcare aims to replicate the Indian software sector's success. Built on acres of land, often gifted to companies at peppercorn rents from Indian local authorities eager to promote business, the new, sleek medical centres of excellence offer developed world treatment at developing world prices.

A number of private hospitals also offer packages designed to attract wealthy foreign patients, with airport-to-hospital bed car service, in-room internet access and private chefs. Another trend is to combine surgery in India with a yoga holiday or trip to the Taj Mahal.

Many say that it is not just cost but competency that is India's selling point. Naresh Trehan, who earned $2m (£1.06m) a year as a heart surgeon in Manhattan but returned to start Escorts hospital group in India, said that his hospital in Delhi completed 4,200 heart operations last year.

"That is more than anyone else in the world. The death rate for coronary bypass patients at Escorts is 0.8% and the infection rate is 0.3%. This is well below the first-world averages of 1.2% for the death rate and 1% for infections," says Dr Trehan. "Nobody questions the capability of an Indian doctor, because there isn't a big hospital in the United States or Britain where there isn't an Indian doctor working."

Most foreign patients who come to the subcontinent are from other developing countries in Africa, south-east Asia and the Middle East where western-trained doctors and western-quality hospitals are either hard to find or prohibitively expensive.

Hospital administrators accept that many prospective patients from the west are put off because images of India tend to focus on poverty and on the less than hygienic living conditions of most people.

Mr Marshall had never visited the subcontinent before and only been out of Britain twice before, to Australia and Egypt, on holiday. He readily admits that he did not tell his daughter what he was planning to do until two days before coming, for fear of her "reaction".

What little Mr Marshall knew about the country was not favourable and at first he was shocked by the organised chaos of India. "There are so many people here. When I was in the car coming from the airport we got stuck in really heavy traffic. It was hot, there were horns going off and people shouting. I thought, 'Oh hell, I've made a mistake.'"

But once in his airconditioned room, with cable television and a personalised nursing service, the 73-year-old says that his stay has been "pretty relaxing. I go for a walk in the morning when it is cool but really I don't have to deal with what's outside".

How many patients will come from Britain ultimately will depend on the NHS, which has begun sending patients for treatment to Europe to cope with its backlog of cases. At present the NHS restricts referrals to hospitals within three hours' flying time - but Indian hospitals say this barrier will eventually be lifted.

"It is inevitable. In the west you have rising healthcare costs and an ageing population," says Habil Khoraiwallah, chairman of Wockhardt, who plans to open five hospitals in India next year, including a new 350-bed hospital in Bangalore. "People are already discovering the benefits themselves. Governments will follow."

But campaigners say while the private medical industry is getting tax breaks and other incentives, the public healthcare system in India is falling apart. The country has less than one hospital bed per 1,000 people, compared with more than seven in first world countries. There are just four doctors in India for every 10,000 people, compared with 18 in Britain.

"The poor in India have no access to healthcare because it is either too expensive or not available. We have doctors but they are busy treating the rich in India," says Ravi Duggal, a researcher at Cehat, a health thinktank based in Mumbai. "Now we have another trend. For years we have been providing doctors to the western world. Now they are coming back and serving foreign patients at home."

What treatment costs

Heart bypass UK: £15,000
France: £13,000
US: £13,250
India: £4,300

Hip replacement UK: £9,000
France: £7,600
US: £15,900
India: £3,180

Cataract operation UK: £2,900
France: £1,000
US: £2,120
India: £660

The Asian Pacific Post - Sun, sand and surgery

The Asian Pacific Post - Sun, sand and surgery

May 5, 2005
Frustrated with having to wait a year for an operation, a popular Vancouver entertainer heads to India to fix his knee, joining a growing number of Canadians who are being lured to Asia by… sun, sand and surgery.

Vancouver realtor Robert Stuart Smith just could not wait anymore.

Despite his friends telling him not to do it, the 72-year-old boarded a plane for Kerala, India with his wife to fix his knee.

“I landed here on April 7 and my surgery was on April 15. I expect to be discharged anytime now because I have started walking. I would like to spend time in my hotel near Kovalam. I expect to fly back by the middle of May,“ Smith said after his surgery.

The surgery and travel cost Smith about C$25,000 — money he says was well spent.

He could have had the surgery done for free in B.C.

But that would have meant a one-year wait for the popular Vancouver crooner who was a mainstay at the George V Pub in Vancouver‘s Hotel Georgia for seventeen years.

Like him, many Canadians frustrated with the growing waiting times for surgery are heading to Asia which is cashing in on the growing medical tourism industry.

So-called medical tourism has boomed in recent years, especially in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and India with foreign patients travelling both for those nations‘ famed beaches and routine medical procedures that are often cheaper and get done quicker than in their home countries.

In Canada, especially in B.C. several local companies with names like OneWorld Medicare, Medextra and Timely Medical Alternatives have also begun cashing in on the trend by setting up brokerages that arrange speedy off-shore health service.

Fuelling the industry are Canada‘s lengthy waiting lists for many medical procedures. A study last year found Canadians waited an average of 8.4 weeks from their general practitioner‘s referral to an appointment with a specialist in 12 different medical specialties, then waited another 9.5 weeks for their treatment. Those wait times are almost double what a similar study found in 1993.

India is considered the leading country promoting medical tourism-and now it is moving into a new area of “medical outsourcing,“ where subcontractors provide services to the overburdened medical care systems in western countries.

India‘s National Health Policy declares that treatment of foreign patients is legally an “export“ and deemed “eligible for all fiscal incentives extended to export earnings.“ Government and private sector studies in India estimate that medical tourism could bring between C$1.2 billion and C$2.5 billion US into the country by 2012. The reports estimate that medical tourism to India is growing by 30 per cent a year.

India‘s top-rated education system is not only churning out computer programmers and engineers, but an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 doctors and nurses each year.

The largest of the estimated half-dozen medical corporations in India serving medical tourists is Apollo Hospital Enterprises, which treated an estimated 60,000 patients between 2001 and spring 2004.

Apollo‘s business began to grow in the 1990s. The first patients were Indian expatriates who returned home for treatment; major investment houses followed with money and then patients from Europe, the Middle East and Canada began to arrive. Apollo now has 37 hospitals, with about 7,000 beds.

Western patients usually get a package deal that includes flights, transfers, hotels, treatment and often a post-operative vacation.

This month Ujjal Dosanjh, the Canadian health minister met Panjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to talk about health tourism and cultural cooperation.

“A number of non-resident Indians from Canada visit Panjab every year and the Chief Minister discussed the potential of medical tourism with their Health Minister. Punjab is upgrading its medical infrastructure and would soon have state-of-the-art facilities,“ Punjab government officials said after the meeting.

In Thailand, the tourism authority is pumping millions to lure Canadians and others with a refined sun, sand and surgery mantra.

In 2003, the burgeoning medical tourism industry generated more than C$1.8 billion for Thailand‘s 400-plus private hospitals which saw over 630,000 overseas patients.

Source: BC Ministry of Health

In 2003, over 5,600 Canadians sought medical treatment at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok.

With an atmosphere more akin to a five-star hotel than a hospital, Bumrungrad is not only the largest private medical institution in Asia, but also the first hospital in Asia to become internationally accredited.

The Thai Trade Centre in downtown Vancouver is among the missions worldwide that is actively promoting medical tourism with a target to reach 1 million patients by 2005.

Malaysia is another country on the health-tourism bandwagon.

Capitalizing on its Western-trained medics and a favourable exchange rate (neighbouring Singapore‘s treatments cost twice as much), Malaysia‘s wards now proffer everything from laparoscopic surgery to liposuction.

And patients are flocking: the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) claims that in 2002 nearly 85,000 medical tourists checked themselves in to Malaysian clinics, mostly from Indonesia and other Asian countries but also many from Europe. “We‘re multicultural and multilingual,“ says the association‘s Dr. Ridzwan Bakar. “And we‘re the most competitively priced country in the Asia-Pacific region, bar India.“

Malaysia‘s other major selling point is its ability to perform difficult treatments. Among the most popularly requested operations are cardiac bypass surgery — the National Heart Institute is a leading center in the region — and fertility treatments, with the country‘s premier Damansara Fertility Centre claiming in vitro success rates that match top U.S. clinics.

To compete with Malaysia and Thailand, a major private hospital in Singapore slashed prices recently for a slew of common operations as part of city-state‘s drive to lure tourists and expatriates seeking inexpensive health care.

The private 380-bed Raffles Hospital is hoping to treat up to 300,000 foreign patients a year by then, said Dr. Loo Choon Yong, executive chairman of the Raffles Medical Group, one of Singapore‘s top health care providers.

Loo said Raffles was offering prices that are competitive and comparable to the Thai and Malaysian hospitals. “We can you guarantee you, when you take blood from our blood bank in Singapore it is safe, 100 percent safe,“ Loo added.

“We can also assure you in Singapore, the level of training and professionalism is among the best in the world.“

The hospital is now discounting 10 standard operations and procedures ranging from having a baby and treating a cataract to undergoing a heart bypass.

The downtown hospital offers comprehensive packages for those going under the knife — and for their family members who travel with them. Dr. Prem Kumar Nair, general manager of the group, said staff could arrange airport transfers, book relatives into nearby hotels, and even help to arrange a local tour.

“That‘s why they call it medical tourism: we do everything,“ Nair said.

As the medical tourism industry booms in Asia, the medical industry in North America which is increasingly becoming agitated is sending word out about the risks associated with seeking medical care or surgical procedures elsewhere.

Realizing that it will only take one-botched operation to destroy the industry, countries like India, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand have imposed strident measures to ensure their new money-maker does not get a black eye.

Ruben Toral, marketing director at Bumrungrad Hospital, in Thailand cautions that when going abroad for medical care, people need to be smart consumers. They need to realize that they are taking their health in their own hands and “understand where [they] are going to, and make sure this is an accredited facility with management standards, care standards, quality standards that [they] would expect in [their] home country.“

Experts have identified a number of problems with medical tourism:

* Government and basic medical insurance, and sometimes extended medical insurance, often does not pay for the medical procedure, meaning the patient has to pay cash.
* There is little follow-up care. The patient usually is in hospital for only a few days, and then goes on the vacation portion of the trip or returns home. Complications, side-effects and post-operative care are then the responsibility of the medical care system in the patients‘ home country.
* Most of the countries that offer medical tourism have weak malpractice laws, so the patient has little recourse to local courts or medical boards if something goes wrong.
* There are growing accusations that profitable, private-sector medical tourism is drawing medical resources and personnel away from the local population, although some medical organizations that market to outside tourists are taking steps to improve local service.

But Vancouverite Robert Stuart Smith who got a new knee in India said that if you do enough research and planning, the risks are minimized.

“Believe me, we are certainly elated and pleased with the excellent treatment and the love and care we have got from this hospital, and certainly I will tell everyone about this place once I am back in Vancouver,“ Smith told Indian media from his hospital bed.

“I spent a lot of time on the Internet for this. I zeroed down on the Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences hospital here and thought it would be the right place to get my weak knee replaced.After landing here, I had several discussions with the doctor prior to my surgery.

“I also spoke to several patients who had undergone knee replacements,” said Smith.

‘Medical Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges for India’ - Medical Tourism Seminar - Express Healthcare Management

‘Medical Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges for India’ - Medical Tourism Seminar - Express Healthcare Management: "‘Medical Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges for India’

India's relatively developing medical tourism segment has been anointed by healthcare and tourism industry pundits as the next 'best' thing for the country. According to a McKinsey report, India is poised to generate business worth USD 2.2 billion by 2010, however there are plenty of challenges that need to be addressed for India to become the world's preferred healthcare destination. Prominent among them being the need for proper accreditation and requisite standardisation systems in place, a tripartite synergy between hospitals, tour operators and respective state governments. These were some of the findings at the seminar titled, 'Medical Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges for India' organised by Express Healthcare Management and Express Travel and Tourism, bringing the two sides of the medical tourism industry together for the first time in the country. NV Ramamurthy, editor, Express Healthcare Management welcomed the delegates and the panelists. He spoke about the various challenges impeding the growth of the medical tourism industry and emphasised the need for a synergy between hospitals, state government and international tour operators.

The panelists for the session comprised Dr R V Karanjekar, chief executive officer, Dr D Y Patil Hospital and Research Centre, Mumbai; Anupam Verma, director administration at PD Hinduja National Hospital, Mumbai; Joy Chakraborty, deputy administrator at Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre; Gour Kanjilal, regional director (Western & Central Region), Indiatourism, Mumbai and Mahendra Jain, commissioner of tourism, government of Karnataka.

In 2004, India treated and cared for 1.8 lakh patients. This number is poised for substantial growth - 25-30 per cent in 2005. The panel agreed that India's main USP in this regard was the prospect of low-cost treatment by highly professional

doctors. According to Dr RV Karanjekar, India will have to project itself as being a holistic medical destination to get an edge over other countries. "India offers not just treatment but spiritual and mental healing as well. We need to club together a couple of 'pathies' because we have a very strong base of alternative healing therapies like yoga, naturopathy, ayurveda, etc," said Dr Karanjekar.

The panelists echoed yet another imperative that creating awareness about India's facilities is a must to establish credibility in foreign markets. Joy Chakraborty further suggested that the standardisation of a price band for graded hospitals and a quality assurance model should be taken up immediately to take medical tourism ahead. "CRISIL and ICRA have started something on price bands but are facing few challenges at the moment. What we can do, is try and follow the Thailand model. Thailand first developed its standards as per Joint Commissioner International (JSI) which helped them to get approval from NHS of UK. So convincing medical insurance companies was not a problem." Talking about initiatives that can help in generating the right exposure, Mahendra Jain said, "It is time we create a database on the facilities on offer, the number of patients received and from which market, reason for choosing India, their length of stay, etc. These data can provide pointers to help us in devising country-specific promotional strategies."

Gour Kanjilal said, a joint task force on medical tourism has already been set up by ministry of tourism in collaboration with ministry of health which will look into quality assurance, standardisation of price, global networking and improving visibility. According to Kanjilal, talks need to be held with the source-market countries to sort out insurance policy guidelines.

At the same time, the government should introduce a medical visa to facilitate long-stay he opined. Anupam Verma very ably moderated the two hour seminar and responded to queries from the doctors and the tour operators.

As the hon secretary of Maharashtra Medical Tourism Council formed last year in collaboration with FICCI, he has been actively involved in promoting the state as the preferred medical tourism destination abroad.

More and more Americans turning to medical tourism for healthcare needs

More and more Americans turning to medical tourism for healthcare needs: "A recent McKinsey study predicts that medical tourism in India, worth $333 million last year, will bring in $2.3 billion by 2012."

Medical tourism to grow by 40 pc in India - Sify.com

Medical tourism to grow by 40 pc in India - Sify.com: "Medical tourism to grow by 40 pc in India
Sunday, 08 January , 2006, 22:17
New Delhi: India will soon have more of health tourists as the government is issuing medical visas to promote the concept.

Medical tourism in the country was expected to grow by 40 per cent this year as there were more and more foreigners visiting to avail the cost effective treatment from the qualified professionals with latest technology, Union Tourism Minister Renuka Chowdhary said in New Delhi on Sunday.

Speaking after releasing a book on Botox, an anti-aging drug, she said the government was promoting India not only as a tourism destination but also as a medical tourism destination.

'The marketing of India as a medical tourism destination is done with great care. We cannot have quacks in the gullies,' she said.

She hoped that the spread of Botox, said to be a simple and effective treatment to look younger, would boost medical tourism in the country. It would also be included in the government’s package to promote the concept."