- Approximately 10,000 people from Bangladesh and Nepal arrive in the city each month for medical consultations.
- The medical tourism industry is worth $5 billion in India.
THDNewsDesk, Kolkata: Staggering under Covid-influenced lockdown, the medical tourism sector affixed around Rs 377crore loss as the inflow of patients from two neighbouring countries Bangladesh and Nepal had decreased acutely from March to July this year.
Due to the sealed borders, limited visa and a diminutive number of flights to control the virus during the lockdown, most of the patients in the bordering countries are unable to access the city for treatment and health check-up. It is catastrophic on the trade units affiliated with medical tourism such as transportation and currency exchange bureaus, diagnostic centres, guest houses and restaurants, apart from private hospitals, nursing homes and clinics.
As per sources, approximately 10,000 people from Bangladesh and Nepal arrive in the city each month for utilising medical facilities. From the 10,000 abroad patients coming to the city 6,000 want OPD services, expending around Rs 9 crore for medical expenditure. These patients ordinarily stay in the city, for two days and their entire medical tourism investment is about Rs 11.4 crore per month. The rest of the patients use IPD services. It flushes the coffer of the medical tourism commerce with Rs 64 crore every month, from which Rs 60 crore is straightly linked, with medical expenditure.
Amit Sharma, Founder and CEO of eExpedise Healthcare, stated TOI, “To date, we have lost Rs 2 crore from the Kolkata market where we deal with the hospitals like HCG Cancer Hospital, Apollo Gleneagles, AMRI and CMRI. The damage caused by the lockdown is beyond temporary repair and the government should take robust measures to revive the medical tourism sector.”
Vinay Agarwal, Founder and MD of Shinon Global stated that telemedicine has evinced to be a significant medium to assist patients throughout the lockdown. He further stated, “Since Myanmar Medical Council and Uzbekistan’s health ministry have allowed us to proceed, we have been providing pre-operation and post-operation services to patients via video consultations. Our monthly loss in Kolkata market clocks around Rs 10-12 lakh.”
Rajeev Taneja, Founder and MD, Global Care, stated, “Our industry has been going through a rough patch and, we are facing around 30% decline in revenues per month from the Kolkata market alone owing to the lockdown.”
The medical tourism industry is worth $5 billion in India, that assists approximately 1.68 million international patients each year.
Though most international patients that visit Kolkata are from Bangladesh and Nepal, others visit Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and other cities include patients from Fiji, Oman and Sudan, as per the majors of the medical tourism commerce.
Source-Economic Times