India has emerged as a key destination for medical travellers and the industry is set to more than double in the next four years, according to market estimates.
“We are flooded with inquiries from the US, Europe and African countries as we can offer advanced medical procedures like bariatric surgery at as low as one-tenth of the cost in those countries,” Kishor Joshi, deputy general manager at Fortis Hospitals said here. 

According to a study conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), the current market size of the Indian medical tourism is Rs45bn and this is expected to cross Rs108bn by 2015 when the inflow of medical tourists crosses 3.2mn from the current level of 850,000. Fortis claims 30 to 40% market share in this segment.

Since medical care has become prohibitively expensive for those who do not have the protection of insurance cover in countries like the US, Joshi feels the trend would continue for many more years. Several hospitals have also sprung up in India offering world class treatment facilities.

“Healthcare spend is going up in the developing countries and we can attract many more tourists to India taking advantage of the competency of our doctors and healthcare workers as well as excellent infrastructure facilities available with our hospitals,” he said.

Fortis with a chain of 62 hospitals spread across the country has tailor-made packages to address specific needs of different geographies. It also claims expertise across a wide array of clinical specialities and has accreditation from the US-based Joint Commission International (JCI).

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