Healthcare cos expect big growth in foreign patient arrivals

The top three healthcare chains, Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals and Max Healthcare that together had treated about nearly 90,000 foreign patients last year, are banking on their cost effective and specialised services in areas like cardiology, organ transplants and oncology to drive foreign patient inflows into the country.
"We expect a 70 to 80 per cent increase in the number of patients this fiscal on the back of segments, including oncology, cardiac, orthopaedics, organ transplants and neuro," a Fortis Healthcare spokesperson told PTI.

Fortis Healthcare, which has a network of 66 hospitals across the country, treated 4,700 foreign patients in 2010-11.

Out of the total foreign patients treated by Fortis in 2010-11, 32 per cent came from Africa, 28 per cent from the Middle-East, 18 per cent from SAARC region, 19 per cent from the US and Europe and 3 per cent from the CIS region.

The country's largest hospital group Apollo Hospitals treated more than 50,000 foreign patients last fiscal.

While the company did not spell out exactly the number of expected foreign patients, it said that therapeutic areas like cardiology, cancer treatment and organ transplants among others will drive its growth in medical tourism.

"These are the areas which will remain drivers in future as well," a company spokesperson said.

Last year, foreign patients from as many as 55 countries, including all SAARC countries, Middle East, CIS countries, Africa and US, UK and Canada came for treatment at Apollo.

Max Hospitals said it is also expecting a growth in the inflow of foreign patients but did not specify numbers.

"At Max, we have treated more than 35,000 patients in the last two years. For the current calendar year it is at 9,000," Max Healthcare Division General Manager - International Sales and Hospitals Alok Khanna said.

The company had treated patients mainly from Afghanistan, Iraq, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Oman, Qatar, Africa, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Congo, Zambia, Burundi, Kenya and UAE, he added.

According to a study by McKinsey and the CII, the medical tourism in India could become a USD 2-billion industry by 2012 from USD 350 million in 2006.

The key selling points of the medical tourism industry in India are its cost effectiveness and its combination with the attractions of tourism, according to the study.
Also, the treatment cost is lowest in India, 20 per cent of the average cost incurred in the US, Singapore, Thailand and South Africa, the report had stated.