Medical tourism to India on the up as Covid impression ebbs

New Delhi Twenty-one terminal kidney, liver and heart patients from Myanmar arrived on a hospital-arranged charter flight at Apollo Hospital in New Delhi on Friday as medical tourism hit by the Covid-19 pandemic increased again.

Most of these patients are facing organ transplants and have waited months for travel restrictions to ease the pandemic because transplants are not widespread in their country.

“With initial bans and travel restrictions imposed worldwide due to Covid-19, the condition of these patients had deteriorated so badly that a transplant was the only way out. These patients were chronic cases of kidney, liver and cardiovascular diseases and have been waiting for organ transplants for over six months, “the hospital said in a statement.

“Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals has worked with the Indian Embassy to arrange a special charter flight to bring these patients to India for immediate kidney / liver transplantation and expedite the treatment of patients in need of attention for cardiovascular disease,” he added .

The Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MEA) has not officially commented on the arrival of these patients. However, people familiar with the developments said, on condition of anonymity, that special permission had been granted for the airlift of the 21 sick on humanitarian grounds.

Medical tourism in India had grown steadily in recent years. Government data for 2019 and 2018 showed that at least 6% of total tourist flow to India came from people coming for treatment. For medical reasons, foreign tourists came to 697,453 in 2019 – 6.4% of the total; for 2018 it was 644,036, 6.1% of the total tourist influx.

While the Ministry of Tourism has not yet released public data on international patients coming to India for treatment in 2020, most hospitals, where 10-15% of their patients came from overseas, said they did not see the usual rush over the past year international patients have seen because of the pandemic.

“The proportion of international patients has decreased significantly in the past year. but it is increasing very gradually this year. The normal rush is still not there. In our hospital we would see about 10-15% foreign patients annually, which is now only 2-3%, but the patients are already coming in, ”said Dr. Yatin Mehta, chairman of the Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesiology Institute at Medanta Hospital.

Also, patients currently traveling to India for treatment are largely the ones in need of critical care.

“These are all patients who suffer from chronic, life-threatening diseases such as organ failure, cancer or brain tumors. There were absolutely no overseas patients in the first few months. Critical patients began entering in July. However, travel for elective procedures such as orthopedic implant placement etc. has completely disappeared, ”said Dr. Sibal.

Dr. Mehta says: “Also, no patients come from countries that are considered to be bladder-proof, like the UK or the USA. Most of the patients come from Asian or African countries. It will take time for things to get back to normal. After all, not everyone can afford to charter a flight. ”

The Apollo Hospital has an information center in Yangon, Myanmar. At the request of the patients, a special flight was arranged to take them to India.

“The Indian mission in Myanmar has been of great help in transporting these patients. They had waited a while, some even over six months, to be treated. These are all critically ill patients who have had regular follow-ups but have not been able to travel for treatment. We tried to get the best possible treatment for them through virtual consultations, but now they had to be operated on, ”said Dr. Anupam Sibal, group leader of the Apollo Hospitals.