Patients experiences in Indian Hospitals

Patients experiences in Indian hospitalsI love telling stories about the health care industry in this country, of how it is often dysfunctional and inept, and, more than anything, how it is either unavailable or financially devastating for many of us.

To illustrate, allow me to tell the story of Nick Duren and D.J. Phillips.

It begins three years ago, the day they wheeled Nick Duren out of surgery on his spine at a well-known Denver hospital.

Discs up and down his spine had herniated and he could barely walk. Having retired well, he hired one of the top surgeons in the city to fix it.

The surgery didn't work. His right leg began to atrophy; he could barely climb a short run of stairs. The prominent doctor ran more and more tests. Nick Duren now could not swing a club, much less play his beloved golf.

He fired his surgeon. A veteran, Duren, 59, decided he would try the VA. Maybe doctors there could help him. He never got a call back. So he just lived with the pain.

Fast-forward to late last summer.

A buddy of Duren's had gotten him in touch with the top neurosurgeon in Omaha. He would fix everything for $150,000. The couple began exploring taking out a second mortgage on their Wheat Ridge home.

But then, days later, Duren and Phillips saw a segment on 60 Minutes about "medical tourism," of how Westerners are traveling to India and Thailand more frequently for surgeries they could never afford back home.

Phillips got on the computer. She wrote to the Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, India. She told the staff neurosurgeon, Dr. Harsh Bhargaza, about Duren's condition.

He wrote back immediately. He could "fix" him, Bhargaza promised in an e-mail. "You have what we call here 'failed back syndrome.' We see this a lot in my country," he wrote.

But he would need every medical record Nick Duren could get his hands on. They sent him a tall stack.

And, the doctor told them, he would need $10,000 wired to an account at the Apollo to make it happen. Duren and Phillips looked at each other, shrugged and sent the money.

The hospital sent the couple their itinerary the next day.

"We got to this very scary airport in New Delhi with a billion people outside, all of them yelling at us," D.J. Phillips recounted. "They told us our cabbie would meet us outside. Outside there were 2 million cabbies, all holding signs. Ours was at the tail end of the line.

"He's driving a 1940s Ambassador cab and goes screaming into the road, which has no lanes but is clogged with camels, donkeys, Brahma bulls, rickshaws, trucks and cars, all of which are competing for space. And we call I-25 tough. I thought we were going to die."

The Apollo turned out to be a foreboding, granite-and-marble holdover from British rule, where the nurses - "sisters," as they are called - still wear white starched uniforms and hats.

"What have we done?" Phillips asked Duren.

Doctors and technicians immediately descended upon them. For the next 10 hours, Duren would undergo a battery of tests.

Dr. Bhargaza told them he would operate the next day.

Nick Duren described the operating room as a dungeon, more like a World War II bunker than a shiny operating theater.

He remembered meeting with the five surgeons who would operate on him. He liked the number. "Let's go," he told them.

He was in surgery for nearly six hours. They removed screws and pins the Denver doctors had installed and put in something called an "Israeli cage," which apparently isn't approved in the U.S.

"It all seemed barbaric," D.J. Phillips said, "but the quality of care from the sisters and the doctors was unparalleled. They treated us like royalty."

The day after the surgery, a large earthquake struck New Delhi. Nick Duren, not wanting to be buried in the rubble of the hospital, actually walked down five flights of stairs. In the lobby, they found everyone praying.

He would stay 21 days in the Apollo Hospital. On Day 21, the couple met with Dr. Bhargaza to go over the bill. He refunded $1,500 to them. The surgery did not cost as much as he had figured.

With travel, hotel and other costs, the couple said the entire surgery cost less than $16,000.

"The meal charge for me, and I ate twice a day for 16 days, was $16," D.J. Phillips said.

In the days since they returned at the end of October, Nick's right leg has completely healed. He is, he said, pain-free for the first time in five years.

Three days after surgery, he and D.J. climbed the stairs into the Taj Mahal and took the tour on foot. He flew home without pain medication.

"We would have taken a second on the house," D.J. Phillips said, "but we finally decided to hell with the system, let's see what India has to offer."

Dr. Bhargaza still calls every week from India. The couple says he is now a lifelong friend.

"We could have destroyed our savings and gone to Omaha, with no guarantee of success," D.J. Phillips said. "But we took our chances. And as scary as it was, we would do it all over again.

"People need to know this."

Nick Duren now figures he will play his first round of golf in five years sometime next month.

India eyes US medical tourism

Zee News - India eyes US medical tourism
New Delhi, Jan 25: Eyeing the 40 million American citizens who are without medical insurance and are on the look out for cheaper treatment, India has cleared the proposal to adopt the US model of health care in mega cities.

'Some US medical experts will travel to India to help develop an Indian model based on the US model with required modifications,' a renowed NRI doctor and founder President of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, Navin Shah told.

Shah, who during his recent visit to India met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss to promote the concept, said development of world standard medical facilities would ensure 'several millions of dollars' for India through treatment of Americans and other foreigners.

This will also have a spill over effect in the form of medical tourism, shah said.

To provide accreditation for hospitals with over 100 beds, NRI doctors in America, to begin with, will provide three experts to help develop the US model of medicare in Mumbai, he said.

Shah said even billions of dollars could be earned by tapping the 40 million Americans without the US medical card and other foreigners by providing cheap and quality treatment.

The Indian model of treatment will include setting up of trauma centres for which Health Ministry has been provided a high budget, he said.

120 million US citizens without dental cover

PRESS RELEASE Anywhere MD Inc. (OTC: ANWM) Has Entered the Asian Marketplace With Its Initial System Sales to Prestige Asia for Beta Testing in Thailand: "Medical tourism will be particularly attractive in the United States, where an estimated 43 million people are without health insurance and 120 million without dental coverage -- numbers that are both likely to grow. Patients in Britain, Canada and other countries with long waiting lists for major surgery will be just as eager to take advantage of foreign health-care options. For many medical tourists, though, the real attraction is price. The cost of surgery in India, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the United States or Western Europe, and sometimes even less. A heart-valve replacement that would cost $200,000 or more in the U.S., for example, goes for $10,000 in India -- and that includes round-trip airfare and a brief vacation package. A full facelift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs about $1,250 in South Africa. You can certainly see the opportunity a creative company like AnyWhere MD would have to prosper and grow out its business plan."

Docs want Vadodara to be medical tourism hot spot

Vadodara, January 24:

It was only recently that rating agency CRISIL had pointed out in a city evaluation report Vadodara’s potential to emerge as a medical tourism destination.

And in the first ever such private intiative, city doctors came together to chalk out plans to promote Vadodara as medical centre with an eye on tourists-cum-patients from Gulf, African countries in addition to NRIs and NRGs. On Friday, responding to the call by the Vadodara Initiative (VI) group, 72 leading doctors from the city held a brainstorming session to devise ways to promote the city as destination for medical tourism. In addition to its thousand-odd family physicians, Vadodara is presently home to thousand consultants, 900 nursing homes and seven multi-speciality hospitals of corporate image.

‘‘We are as good as Ahmedabad, though being a smaller city. Interestingly, unlike Mumbai, where the latest medical technology comes first to government hospitals, in Vadodara it is the private doctors who lead,’’ said Dr Mayank Bhatt, Indian Medical Association (IMA) vice-president, Vadodara chapter. After the Friday meet, the doctors have begun their task in earnest with Dr Rikesh Majmudar of Aashirvad Hospital taking up the responsibility of collecting the data of all facilities and infrastructre of city hospitals.

City’s leading tour operator, Bharat Shah of Prominent Travels believes that while medical tourism is already happening, it needs to be better organised. ‘‘The packaging has to be done, facilities needs to be marketed in travel exhibitions and also like the hotel industry, the entire hospital industry should gear itself,’’ said Shah, who attended the meet.

City doctors admit that medical tourism is already happening in an informal manner. But not in an agressive manner, like Thailand which has emerged as favoured medical tourism destination for the Westeners, believes Dr Rajiv Shah, chairman of Unity Hospital. ‘‘Vadodara doctors always have been very enterprising; instead of making individual effort it makes sense to come together,’’ said Dr Shah.

Also, leading city doctors believe that with the increasing presence of super-specialists in the city, more so after the brain drain of doctors to the US has slowed down a bit, the medical sector has become a profitable venture.

While the task of collecting information of available medical facilities and infrastructure is on, a core committee of doctors and leading citizens will be formed shortly to overlook the promotion part, said Nilesh Shukla, VI co-ordinator.

original publisher: http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=167004

Medical tourism growing worldwide

Medical tourism growing worldwide

Futurist Marvin Cetron, founder and president of Forecasting International, serves on the advisory board of UD’s Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management.

11:34 a.m., July 25, 2005

Falling ill while abroad seems like the worst sort of traveling nightmare. Yet, for growing numbers of travelers, the lure of combining affordable medical care with attentive room service is a chief draw for packing a suitcase and boarding a plane.

Here, UDaily previews excerpts from an article by Frederick J. DeMicco, ARAMARK Chair in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management and department chairperson, and Marvin Cetron, founder and president of Forecasting International, on the growing trend of medical tourism. In Q&A format, both experts share abridged portions of their views from an article soon to be published in the FIU (Florida International University) Hospitality Review.

DeMicco and Cetron, along with Owen Davies, a consultant for Forecasting International, also have coauthored a recently published book on tourism trends titled, Hospitality 2010: The Future of Hospitality and Travel.

Medical tourists have good cause to seek out care beyond the United States for many reasons. In some regions of the world, state-of-the-art medical facilities are hard to come by, if they exist at all; in other countries, the public health-care system is so overburdened that it can take years to get needed care. In Britain and Canada, for instance, the waiting period for a hip replacement can be a year or more, while in Bangkok or Bangalore, a patient can be in the operating room the morning after getting off a plane.

For many medical tourists, though, the real attraction is price. The cost of surgery in India, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the United States or Western Europe, and sometimes even less. A heart-valve replacement that would cost $200,000 or more in the U.S., for example, goes for $10,000 in India--and that includes round-trip airfare and a brief vacation package. Similarly, a metal-free dental bridge worth $5,500 in the U.S. costs $500 in India, a knee replacement in Thailand with six days of physical therapy costs about one-fifth of what it would in the States, and Lasik eye surgery worth $3,700 in the U.S. is available in many other countries for only $730. Cosmetic surgery savings are even greater: A full facelift that would cost $20,000 in the U.S. runs about $1,250 in South Africa.

The savings sound very attractive, but a good new hip and a nice new face don’t seem like the sort of things anyone would want to bargain with. How does the balance of savings versus risk pay off in terms of success rates?

Inferior medical care would not be worth having at any price, and some skeptics warn that Third World surgery cannot possibly be as good as that available in the United States. In fact, there have been cases of botched plastic surgery, particularly from Mexican clinics in the days before anyone figured out what a gold mine cheap, high-quality care could be for the developing countries.

Yet, the hospitals and clinics that cater to the tourist market often are among the best in the world, and many are staffed by physicians trained at major medical centers in the United States and Europe.

Bangkok’s Bumrundgrad hospital has more than 200 surgeons who are board-certified in the United States, and one of Singapore’s major hospitals is a branch of the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In a field where experience is as important as technology, Escorts Heart Institute and Research Center in Delhi and Faridabad, India, performs nearly 15,000 heart operations every year, and the death rate among patients during surgery is only 0.8 percent--less than half that of most major hospitals in the United States.

In some countries, clinics are backed by sophisticated research infrastructures as well. India is among the world’s leading countries for biotechnology research, while both India and South Korea are pushing ahead with stem cell research at a level approached only in Britain. In many foreign clinics, too, the doctors are supported by more registered nurses per patient than in any Western facility, and some clinics provide single-patient rooms that resemble guestrooms in four-star hotels, with a nurse dedicated to each patient 24 hours a day.

Add to this the fact that some clinics assign patients a personal assistant for the posthospital recovery period and throw in a vacation incentive as well, and the deal gets even more attractive. Additionally, many Asian airlines offer frequent-flyer miles to ease the cost of returning for follow-up visits.

How is the medical tourism trend being tracked and what trends, if any, do gathered statistics show?

Ten years ago, medical tourism was hardly large enough to be noticed. Today, more than 250,000 patients per year visit Singapore alone--nearly half of them from the Middle East. This year, approximately half a million foreign patients will travel to India for medical care, whereas in 2002, the number was only 150,000.

In monetary terms, experts estimate that medical tourism could bring India as much as $2.2 billion per year by 2012. Argentina, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, South Africa, Jordan, Malaysia, Hungary, Latvia and Estonia all have broken into this lucrative market as well, or are trying to do so, and more countries join the list every year.

What sort of trends in medical tourism do you foresee in the near future?

Some important trends guarantee that the market for medical tourism will continue to expand in the years ahead. By 2015, the health of the vast Baby Boom generation will have begun its slow, final decline, and, with more than 220 million Boomers in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, this represents a significant market for inexpensive, high-quality medical care.

Medical tourism will be particularly attractive in the United States, where an estimated 43 million people are without health insurance and 120 million without dental coverage--numbers that are both likely to grow. Patients in Britain, Canada and other countries with long waiting lists for major surgery will be just as eager to take advantage of foreign health-care options.

Which countries are significant leaders in the medical tourism industry?

Major centers for medical tourism are Bangkok and Phuket, with six medical facilities in Bangkok boasting hospital accreditation from the United States.

As in most tourist-oriented medical communities, the major attractions are cosmetic surgery and dental treatments. However, eye surgery, kidney dialysis and organ transplantation also are among the most common procedures sought by medical vacationers in Thailand.

For a few patients, Phuket has another attraction as well: Bangkok Phuket Hospital is the premier place to go for sex-change surgery. In fact, that is one of the top 10 procedures for which patients visit Thailand.

India is a relative newcomer to medical tourism, but is quickly catching up with Thailand, and recent estimates indicate that the number of foreign patients is growing there by 30 percent each year.

Looking ahead, are there any medical technologies or procedures in which particular countries excel?

India has top-notch centers for open-heart surgery, pediatric heart surgery, hip and knee replacement, cosmetic surgery, dentistry, bone marrow transplants and cancer therapy, and virtually all of India’s clinics are equipped with the latest electronic and medical diagnostic equipment.

Unlike many of its competitors in medical tourism, India also has the technological sophistication and infrastructure to maintain its market niche, and Indian pharmaceuticals meet the stringent requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Additionally, India’s quality of care is up to American standards, and some Indian medical centers even provide services that are uncommon elsewhere. For example, hip surgery patients in India can opt for a hip-resurfacing procedure, in which damaged bone is scraped away and replaced with chrome alloy--an operation that costs less and causes less post-operative trauma than the traditional replacement procedure performed in the U.S.

For North American patients, Costa Rica is the chosen destination for inexpensive, high-quality medical care without a trans-Pacific flight, and it is the particular mecca for westerners seeking plastic surgery.

South Africa also draws many cosmetic surgery patients, especially from Europe, and many South African clinics offer packages that include personal assistants, visits with trained therapists, trips to top beauty salons, post-operative care in luxury hotels and safaris or other vacation incentives. Because the South African rand has such a long-standing low rate on the foreign-exchange market, medical tourism packages there tend to be perpetual bargains as well.

Additionally, Argentina ranks high for plastic surgery, and Hungary draws large numbers of patients from Western Europe and the U.S. for high-quality cosmetic and dental procedures that cost half of what they would in Germany and America.

Lastly, Dubai--a destination already known as a luxury vacation paradise--is scheduled to open the Dubai Healthcare City by 2010. Situated on the Red Sea, this clinic will be the largest international medical center between Europe and Southeast Asia. Slated to include a new branch of the Harvard Medical School, it also may be the most prestigious foreign clinic on the horizon.

Oman Travel Market highlights Medical Tourism

Times of Oman Cyprus Tourism Organisation to take part at Oman Travel Market

MUSCAT — Cyprus Tourism Organisation, which provides assistance to professional bodies, companies and individuals related to tourism in Cyprus, will be participating at Oman Travel Market, scheduled to be held from January 31 to February 2 2006.

Responsible for the promotion and marketing of tourism, the planning, regulations and development of the tourist product, Cyprus Tourism Organisation is participating as a silver sponsor and plans to cover all aspects of tourism in Cyprus, which has always been popular from various destinations across the world.

Tourists flock for various reasons, whether it be sea-sand and relaxation, archaeological interests, sports, pampering, Cypriot cuisine or on incentive, now a new reason to travel to the island has emerged.

Oman Travel Market 2006, which will highlight a new feature called 'Medical Tourism', is specially intended to meet the growing demand of Omani residents, who travel for treatment purpose and rejuvenation. More and more people are travelling to Cyprus as an affordable, enjoyable, and safe alternative to having medical, dental, and surgical procedures done in their home countries.

Kidney transplants carried out in 2005 at Paraskevaidio Surgical and Transplant Centre reached a world record in per capita terms. The centre carried out 53 kidney transplants in 2005 with a success rate of over 90 per cent, a rate considered to be one of the highest in the world. Since its establishment in 1986, the centre has carried out a total of 667 kidney transplants with the highest success rates in the world.

Iraqi boy undergoes surgery

The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Iraqi boy undergoes surgery: "CHENNAI: Five-month-old Mohammed would not have lived to be a bouncy one-year-old had it not been for the kindness of members of the Shia community and that of the Indian medical staff at Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Hospital, Porur.

Mohammed was suffering from breathing problems. His father Nafee works as a security guard in Haram at Karbala in Iraq, where he met a Yemen-based businessman who suggested that the child be treated in India. He used his clout to raise support for Nafee's travel to India. Bushra, Mohammed's mother, who is with the child at SRMC, says: 'It is normal to see bombing in Iraq.'

'Every day at least one place gets bombed and 40 to 50 people die,' says the Yemen-based businessman who refused to reveal his identity. Besides Mohammed, Nafee and Bushra have two sons and a daughter, aged 8, 12, and 13, who are staying with relatives in Karbala.

The eight-hour road journey from Karbala to Basra was made in the darkness with security. From Basra the family flew to Dubai and then to Mumbai where a Shia-community hospital diagnosed the child's condition. Doctors there got in touch with K.R. Balakrishnan, paediatric cardiologist attached to Sri Ramachandra Hospital. Mohammed, who was operated on Friday, will leave for Karbala in a few days.

Nafee and Bushra are grateful to Dr. Syedna M. Burhanuddin and the community that helped them. Dr. Balakrishnan says: 'As for the procedure itself, it is something we do every day here. But I did not realise that the surgery had less risk than the risk they took while driving from Karbala to Basra.'"