India to relax visa rules for medical tourists

     New Delhi: India will relax its visa rules for patients travelling to the country for medical treatment, Tourism Minister Renuka Chowdhary said at a joint meeting with Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss here on Wednesday. The duration of stay for patients will be relaxed from the present three months to one year for the convenience of such patients, they said. "A lot of people have been coming to India under tourist visas but they, in fact, come for India's medical care. And looking at the dimensions of this, we thought of developing a database or databank of how to identify these visitors. The first step to identify our medical tourists was to issue the M-visa, which will allow them not to renew the visa every three months. It will increase their stay till a year after they have completed the required documentation," Chowdhary said. She added that in the process, India would also create a databank of tourists who are visiting the country for treatment as well. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ramadoss said the meeting was essentially to propagate and regulate medical tourism in the country.

     Currently, there are no rules governing hospitals on servicing foreign patients. "We are planning to implement two-three new rules. In the first phase, the tourism ministry will propagate some basic hospitals in generic terms, which will some of the better hospitals in the country. Next, we will form Health Accreditation Boards to accredit hospitals according to international standards for the benefit of patients," he said. India's healthcare industry has boomed in recent years with a host of private hospitals offering state-of-the-art facilities springing up in metropolitan cities. The 25.1 billion dollar business has also received a boost from "medical tourism" or the growing number of foreign patients, especially from the UK, turning to India for treatment because of its cheaper costs. A study by global consultancy Mc Kinsey said, the healthcare management sector could generate additional revenue of $2.0 billion by 2012, as medical costs in the country were a fraction of those in the United States and Britain. India's healthcare industry is growing at 30 per cent annually and one of its premier private institutions, the Apollo group, alone has so far treated 95,000 international patients. Number of foreign tourists in India rose by 11.4 per cent in September from a year earlier, as the country's tourism industry booms amid a strong economy and growth in business and leisure travel. India, which is Asia's third-largest economy, is trying to boost tourism by running a high-profile publicity campaign called "Incredible India" to showcase attractions like its heritage palaces, jungles, ski slopes and spiritual and adventure tourism destinations. Some 3.4 million foreign travellers visited in 2004 and that number is expected to rise by 10 per cent annually helped by lower air fares.
-Oct 5, 2005