THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 24 March 2007 — India’s Tourism Minister Ambika Soni will open a four-day summit on medical tourism in Kochi today. Around 800 delegates, including those from Qatar, Oman and the UAE, representing various health care stakeholders, will attend the event, titled Kerala Health Tourism (KHT) 2007.
The Department of Tourism, Kerala, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and leading hospitals in the state are jointly organizing the summit.
Kerala Home and Tourism Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan will preside over the function.
The number of medical tourists coming to the southern state has gone up by 30 to 40 percent after last year’s summit.
Seminars during the event will focus on emerging trends, opportunities and challenges in the health tourism sector and discuss preparedness of Indian hospitals. It would also provide an opportunity to different stakeholders in the sector such as major hospitals, health insurance companies, policymakers, tourism promotion boards, hotels and tourist resorts, health travel and tour operators to share and exchange ideas for promoting health tourism, the statement said.
A unique attraction of the KHT 2007 would be the 70-80 stalls displaying the state-of-the-art health care infrastructure in the state. Besides leading hospitals, international health tour operators, airlines and insurance companies are participating in the exhibitions.
“We have received 15,000 foreign patients in Kerala this fiscal year and it is expected to increase to 100,000 by 2010. This would account for 20 percent of the 500,000 patients expected to arrive in India in the year,” says Dr. Philip Augustine, managing director and chief executive officer of the Lakeshore Hospital and Research Center, who is heading the state government’s task force for promoting health tourism in the state.
At least a dozen hospitals in the state are now offering critical surgical procedures of international standards for the foreign patients at one-tenths the cost in the developed countries and the number of hospitals are coming up or the existing ones being upgraded to meet the standards.
The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in association with the federal government has recently started an accreditation system to promote best practices. Two NRI-promoted hospitals, Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences and Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences have already received accreditation from the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Health Care Providers.
Kerala’s rich tradition of ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of medicine that is being promoted by the tourism department as rejuvenation and wellness therapy, is an added advantage.
“We are confident that medical tourism would grow leaps and bounds in Kerala in the coming years. People travel into the developing countries from the developed world for medical procedures of international standards and it is a global phenomenon,” says Sudhakar Jayaram, general manager-administration, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences.
“Health tourism for us would be what information technology is for Karnataka and manufacturing industry for Tamil Nadu. The needs of international patients are very different and what we should look at is a factory concept where the turnaround should be tremendous. Our credibility levels are high,” he said.
