88,000 foreign patients came to Bengaluru over past two years

Bengaluru: Cheaper and better healthcare have reinforced Bengaluru's reputation as a global medical destination. At least 88,020 foreign patients have come to the city since January 2014 for treatment.
According to records from five top hospitals in the city that get foreign patients, most of them come to Bengaluru for cancer care, organ transplants, cardiac care, nephrology, urology, neurosurgery and orthopaedics.Bangladesh, Iraq, Yemen, Maldives, Oman, Mauritius, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria and Indonesia are the top 10 countries from which the city hospitals receive maximum number of patients, the records show.
Manipal Hospital tops the list getting around 49,000 international patients in the past two years. Dr Ajay Bakshi, managing director and CEO, Manipal Hospitals, said, “India is fast emerging as a medical destination and is ranked among top 3 for medical tourism. Bengaluru is gaining popularity among patients from the Middle East and Africa. To sustain growth in this sector, India has to structurize initiatives and reforms to assist medical tourists.“
Explaining what makes Bengaluru hospitals attractive for international patients, Dr Sunil Bhat, consultant and surgeon of paediatric hematology, oncology and bone marrow transplantation at Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre in Narayana Health City, said: “The cost of treatment in Bengaluru is almost 10% lesser than in Singapore, Europe and the US, and the quality of care is better. This has become possible because of modern healthcare infrastructure and highly trained doctors. The training of medical professionals in India has been improving since last decade. Besides, many super specialists trained in the west have returned to India. With such excellent infrastructure and skills, the number of patients from abroad is going to increase with time.“ Narayana Health gets around 10,000 patients every year (20,000 patients from 2014 to April 2016).
International air connectivity, presence of large num ber of foreign students and pleasant weather of Bengaluru are also said to contribute to the city becoming a global healthcare hub.
Vinay Kaul, senior vice president sales and marketing, Columbia Asia Hospitals, said, “Patients from other countries come for diverse medical needs ranging from general surgeries to joint replacements, and from neurosurgery to complex tertiary care procedures like paediatric cardiac surgeries and organ transplants (kidney and liver).“
Dr Vivek Jawali, chairman, Cardio Vascular Sciences and Medical Advisory Council, Fortis Hospitals, Bengaluru, said, “Good quality healthcare, procedural outcomes, positive experiences of other patients from the same country, low treatment cost and warm people and friendly services are the major reasons for more patients to come here from abroad for treatment.“
STORIES FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE
Eight-month-old Habilen from Mauritius was brought to a city hospital with Progressive Familial Intra-Hepatic Cholestasis (PFIC) which he had developed three months ago and his liver was unable to excrete bilirubin.He needed an immediate liver transplant which was difficult in Mauritius. After diagnosis, his family followed the suggestion of city doctors and his 19-year-old sister volunteered to be the donor as there were no other options left to save the child. The surgery lasted for eight hours. Now Habilen has returned home, healthy and happy.Robert (name changed), 9, son of a labour from Indonesia was suffering from aplastic anaemia for six months. He had to undergo platelet transfusion twice or thrice a week which had side effects on his health. He was brought to the city. He underwent successful bone marrow transplant in a city hospital. Now, he is living a healthy life.