Telanagana Govt. Mulls Over Medical Tourism

The Telangana Government is planning to cash in on medical tourism in a big way. Plans are underway to set up a Medical Tourism Hub (MT-Hub) on the lines of T-Hub. 

On an average about 1,000 foreign nationals—mostly from Tanzania, Somalia, Nigeria, Middle Eastern countries and Southeast Asian countries—come to Hyderabad for treatment.

On an average, a medical tourist spends anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh depending on the disease.

According to highly placed sources, the proposed MT-Hub would coordinate with stakeholders and devise plans to ensure a smooth stay for foreigners. 

One among the objectives of the MT-Hub is to provide postoperative care. Many patients who stay in corporate hospitals after complex surgeries need postoperative care and the MT-Hub will be used for this purpose.

A senior official said, “A patient who undergoes an operation needs postoperative care, including fluid injections, physiotherapy and a clean and stress-free environment.”

For this purpose, the tourism department is contemplating using the 12-storied tower at Gachibowli that has 468 rooms. Constructed in 2007 for the World Military Games,

the building is now lying idle.

Thanks to the large number of multispecialty hospitals in Hyderabad, many patients—not only from African and East Asian countries, but even from America—come to Hyderabad as the treatment is comparatively very cheap, especially for leukemia treatments and organ transplants.

According to the Ministry of Tourism, foreign tourist arrivals on medical visa increased by 140% from 2013 to 2015 and during this period more than 2.66 lakh tourists visited India. In Hyderabad, also the number of medical tourists is growing between 20 to 30 percent annually.

Annually, about 10,000 to 12,000 foreign nationals from Africa, the Middle East, CIS and South East Asia come to Hyderabad for complex heart surgeries, joint replacements, bone marrow transplants, cancer treatment, bariatric surgery, heart and lung transplants and more.

Here's an infographic to give you a better idea.