Cover Story Medical value travel back with a bang

MEDICAL VALUE TRAVEL BACK WITH A BANG

Vinod Nedumudy

The global medical value travel (MVT) market which accounted for US$ 54.4* billion in 2020 is projected to reach US$200 billion by 2027. The pandemic may have interrupted the smooth progress of the sector, but experts feel that by the end of this year it will return to the pre-Covid pattern and then make a surge in 2023. However, India’s share in the global market was at US$ 5-6 billion pre-Covid, which shows that there is a huge potential to be tapped and the players in the sector, recovering from the pandemic, are optimistic about making a surge, reports Vinod Nedumudy

While India’s medical value travel sector was projected to reach US$ 13 billion by 2022, the Covid-19 outbreak seems to have delayed achieving this milestone. With flight services being restored, the Metro destinations including the medical capital of Chennai and Kerala are revving up to welcome more and more foreign nationals desiring to get quality care at affordable costs.

Global studies say that the Asia-Pacific region is poised to witness humungous growth in the sector in the coming days as it remains lucrative in terms of high-quality care at a reasonable cost. While Thailand, Singapore, and South Korea give us a run for our money, the opportunities are enormous if private players join hands with both Central and State Governments to offer the best packages and best care along with the best publicity.

“While our metro cities offer top class care and facilities, Kerala is also in the vanguard having excellent private hospitals and topclass professionals. Our major hospitals have received both national and international accreditations and have the coverage of international insurance companies which enable a smooth flow of medical value tourists. With flight operations turning normal, we will have a steady flow of medical value tourists. Already we are witnessing good arrivals from our two prime clients, that’s Maldives and Oman and we are sure to attract more from the Middle East, West Africa, Europe and the US,” said Mr E M Najeeb, Executive Director of KIMS Health, Thiruvananthapuram.

Mr Najeeb said that the brilliant handling of the pandemic by India has caught worldwide attention and a renewed interest in India’s healthcare sector. “Many more people overseas now find our healthcare system reliable and they will flow to the key hospitals in the coming days to get excellent care at affordable rates. There is no medical cost change in the postCovid period from the pre-Covid period in India and Kerala’s edge is in giving homely care,” Mr Najeeb said.

Mr Najeeb said that elective treatments have also picked up pace in the post-Covid-19 phase. “The Central Government has simplified rules regarding medical visas and it’s now easy for bystanders and others to accompany the patients,” he said.

Mr Najeeb said that in Kerala the State Government should come out with a policy initiative to promote medical value tourism. “A public-private partnership should be evolved and the state health and tourism department should take the lead for it,” he said.

According to Jithu Jose, Vice-President of International Business Development at Apollo Hospitals, the pandemic from which we are slowly recovering, has once again established the common denominator for human life, which is ‘good health’. “The most affected industry which is taking its baby steps is global tourism. The impact of tourism revenue losses has changed the landscape of many countries,” said Jithu.

“To reboot MVT for a country like India, we may need a refined approach, the efforts by the Central Government on this front are worth appreciating and the states should also support the providers,” said Jithu.

“If we consider MVT as just a subset of global tourism, the recovery can take at least a year or more to reach the 2019-20 FY scenario. On a positive note, we should look at the MVT segment to take the lead in kickstarting normal tourism too. For India, the opportunity would be to project more super-specialty services and the immediate approach should be value-based and not volume-based,” said Jithu.

“The opportunity for MVT should not be assessed based on deferred care statistics and should be based on ‘ value for money’ and clinical bandwidth; only such an approach can facilitate the MVT segment growth,” said Jithu.

“We have definite reasons to be optimistic and to see India evolving as a global healthcare destination and the re-boot needs a lot of handholding from the government to hospitality providers to airlines. The pandemic may bounce back, another wave or ripple effect, but MVT can be nurtured and has to be... call it shared responsibility beyond geographical boundaries,” said Jithu Jose.

Farhan Yasin, Director, Aster DM Healthcare, said that 10-12 per cent of our total revenue of the group came from medical tourism in pre-Covid times. “During the first wave, revenue came to nearly zero because the air traffic had come to a halt. Subse-

E M Najeeb

Executive Director,KIMS Health

Jithu Jose

Vice-President-IBD, Apollo Hospitals

Farhan Yasin

Director, Aster DM Healthcare

quently, we revived a little bit. In the last quarter we were at 50-60 per cent of the pre-Covid levels. Patients were coming to us through an air-bubble arrangement. We have recovered up to 6-7 per cent now. By the Q1 of the current financial year, we hope that we will reach the pre-Covid level of 10-11 percent, and from there on, we can expect some growth,” said Farhan Yasin.

“Now we should be seeing the bulk of the patients coming from Oman, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. Kerala gets approximately 60% of its medical travelers from GCC. We have four hospitals in Kerala which cater to international patients which are Aster Medcity Kochi, Aster MIMS Calicut, Kottakkal and Kannur. Aster Medcity is Kerala’s first quaternary care hospital and accredited by JCI, NABH, received NABH certification for nursing excellence, Green OT (Green Operation Theatres) Certification by Bureau Veritas all within a year of opening its door to the world,” said Farhan.

Farhan said that Bone Marrow Transplant, Liver Transplant, Kidney Transplant, Parkinson and Movement Disorders treatment including Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Spine Surgery, Epilepsy Surgery, Cardiac Electrophysiology offered by Aster has already benefited hundreds of people across the world. “Aster Minimal Access Robotic Surgery (MARS) program has successfully performed over 1200 robotic-assisted surgeries by transplant surgeons, urologists, and gynaecologists. The hospital also is one of the very few in the region to offer full-fledged Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) facilities reviving critically ill patients,” he said. Farhan said that the exotic travel destinations in Kerala are within 3-4 hour reach of Aster which has a dedicated travel desk to assist.

According to Harish Manian, CEO, MGM Healthcare Pvt Ltd, though the loss from the pandemic was unimag-

Harish Manian

CEO, MGM Healthcare Pvt Ltd

inable, the ineffable contribution and sacrifice of the frontline workers underpinned where we are now. Frontline workers at MGM Healthcare experienced high work volume, personal risk and societal pressure to meet extraordinary demands for healthcare. The hospital also faced challenges in performing elective surgeries since patients were reluctant to visit the hospital due to the fear of Covid.

“The pandemic had a major impact on MGM Healthcare when the OPD number dropped from 400 patients a day to below 150 patients. Surgeries dropped from 20 to 5 a day. Before Covid, there was a steady inflow of over 7500 international patients from over 54 countries. These numbers dropped significantly during the pandemic,” says Harish Manian

trust of patients coming from different parts of the country and the rest of the world for electives and emergency surgeries helped the firm to bounce back. Regular follow-ups with patients while continuously being the watchdog during Covid enabled the hospital to maintain a subtle balance. Besides, the collaborations from different countries and networks nudged patients back.

He said that MGM Healthcare during the pandemic ran the largest ECMO programme in the country to help the patients to recover from Covid-affected lungs and performed the first lung transplant on a Covid-affected patient.

He said that the hospital expects a major inflow of MV tourists from the MENA sector, SAARC, Africa, CIS countries, and parts of Europe. “Chennai being the gateway to the cultural heritage of Tamil Nadu we can direct the guests to many tourist spots across the state,” he said.

Yes, the operators in the MVT sector are gung-ho about future prospects. Let’s take off!