Government has taken several steps to promote India as a Medical and Health Tourism Destination
Overview of Medical Tourism in India.
Over the past decade, India has gained a reputation in providing high quality medical service at low costs to medical tourists travelling from across the globe. However, with the travel bans during the covid-19 pandemic, the influx of medical tourists had dipped. According to the Tourism Ministry, India registered a negative growth of 79.4% over 2020. Although, the situation looks positive once more owing to the efforts made to handle the pandemic situation. Medical Tourism Market insights (https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/india-medical-tourism-market) suggest the demand forecast to increase at a robust 19 % CAGR in 2022.
Highlighting the Measures Undertaken by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare:
Special provision of Medical Visa has been made for tourists travelling to India for healthcare purposes. This has been made available in 165 countries.
Setting up a feedback mechanism to obtain testimonials from tourists travelling to the country for medical purposes. This ‘one-step’ portal would add to the convenience and provide credible information for medical tourists coming to India.
The ‘Heal in India’ initiative aims to position the country as a global hub for medical and wellness tourism. Under this initiative, foreigners or those seeking medical help will be able to locate the list of hospitals in the country available to provide their choice of medical treatments through an ‘one step’ online portal. It is a one stop shop for all services from the treatment package cost, visa applications to grievance redressals and feedback. The initiative also aims at providing a database of healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists and will also include a section where professionals can specify the country in which they are most interested in providing their services. This will allow India to diversify its operations by sending doctors abroad to treat patients.
Highlighting the Measures Undertaken by the Ministry of Tourism (https://tourism.gov.in/) :
- E- Medical Visa’ introduced for 166 countries
- The Marketing Development Assistance Scheme (MDA) offers financial assistance to approved tourism service providers to promote an intricate nexus of facilities for the tourists to stay.
- National Medical & Wellness Tourism Board constituted to promote Medical/Wellness Tourism, AYUSH
- Publicity materials, such as brochures and CDs, intended to promote medical and health tourism have been circulated in target markets. Yoga/Ayurveda/Wellness has been promoted over the last two years in print, electronic, internet, and outdoor media under the Ministry of Tourism’s “Incredible India Campaign”.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to announce a host of initiatives for the health sector on Independence Day with the highlights being the ‘Heal in India’ and ‘Heal by India’ projects and a roadmap to eliminate sickle cell disease by 2047. Under the ‘Heal in India’ initiative that aims at positioning the country as a global hub for medical and wellness tourism, medical infrastructure at 37 hospitals in 12 states will be ramped up to boost medical tourism.
- Interpreters and special desks at 10 identified airports, a multilingual portal and simplified visa norms for international patients and their companions are also among the highlights of the initiative.
- Medical & health tourism promoted at World Travel Mart (London), ITB, Berlin, Arabian Travel Mart etc.
Opportunities for Digital Health Innovation in India.
The surge of medical tourism in India is creating plenty of opportunities for healthcare providers to innovate and adopt cutting-edge digital health technologies. This includes leveraging artificial intelligence and electronic health records. With the digitization of Indian healthcare services, Healthcare Professionals and patients can experience faster and more efficient care while providers are benefiting from greater access to data and insights. Additionally, the development of digital health tools offers the potential to help level the playing field between private healthcare providers and those that focus on providing care to rural and underserved communities.
As the digital health industry continues to grow rapidly, the opportunities for digital health innovation in India have never been greater. With the Indian government’s increased focus on digital health, it is clear that this sector has a great potential for growth.
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