What Is Medical Tourism

Medical Tourism is a term originally coined by travel agencies and the mass media to illustrate the increasing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care. It also refers negatively to the practice of healthcare practitioners travelling abroad to provide healthcare. The Indian medical tourism sector is estimated to experience a yearly growth of 30%, making it a Rs. 9,500-crore business till 2014. The revenue generated from Medical Tourism to India will be as high as $2 Billion by the end of the year 2012. The Benefits for therapeutic tourists comprise of reduced costs, the accessibility of the most up to date medical technologies and a rising compliance on quality principles and also the fact that they unlikely to face a language barrier in India. The Government in India is measuring important procedures to avoid any infrastructure issues that would come in the way of India's growth in Medical Tourism. The cost of common surgical procedures in India start at approximately a tenth of what it is to get treated in North America & Europe. The trendiest treatments hunted in India by tourists are alternative medicine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac bypass, eye, orthopedic surgeries. India is known mostly for heart surgery, hip resurfacing and other areas of complex medicine. The Tourism Ministry in India is setting up plans to expand it "Market Development Scheme" to support Joint Commission International (JCI) and National Accreditation Board of Hospitals (NABH) approved hospitals. A policy announcement of the same has already been made. Cities like Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore are measured as the cities with India's best medical centres