Indian Medical Scene

It was not the forts, temples, palaces, culture or nature that attracted him to India. It was sheer practical reasons that made him book his tickets
for Kolkata. He is an Egyptian who came to our country for the sole purpose of getting
a knee replacement at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, confirmed Dr. Suvro Banerjee, an
interventional cardiologist, attached with the hospital. No only patents, many NRI doctors
are now coming back and settling in India which endorses the fact that the medical
scenario of the country is changing and it’s changing for good!

Dr. Banerjee, a graduate from Calcutta Medical College, went to UK in 1994 for further
studies and also to practice medicine. Couple of years down the line he came back to
India to be by the sides of my ailing parents and subsequently settled in Kolkata as he
found that a lot has changed since he left the country. “Lots of good work is going on
here now and also there have been an exponential rise in both quality and quantity of
amenities and infrastructure. Earlier trained doctors didn’t get the chance to put their
skills into practice earlier. The hope of being able to execute my training made me decide
to settle here. And I have found that not only in cardiology, in other branches of medicine
too there has started a trend among the NRB docs to come back and settle in India,” said
Dr. Banerjee.

Changes are perceived in all spheres in the medical world. The concept of Health
Insurance, believes Dr. Banerjee, is becoming very popular and will become a necessity
in the next five years. “Also a distinct change can be noticed in the way health care
is delivered now-a-days. Earlier we used to treat a patient who came to us with some
ailment. But gradually the trend is changing from therapeutic health care to preventive
health care. More and more people are coming to doctors to be cautious of their future
ailments. Even doctors while treating a patient are predicting them with there future
illnesses. Also fast growing is the trend to go for institutional help than individual
ones. Many now prefer one stop health care than hopping from one doctor to another
for treating different diseases. And last but not the least doctors now look for holistic
health care rather than focused treatment. The new mantra is ‘Health Care with a Smile’.
And we docs now send our patients back home not only with a healthy body but with a
spirited mind and a smiling face,” stated the young cardiologist.

Dr. Shantanu Basu who is specializes in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Clinical
Cardiology, has also come back and settled in India after practicing medicine in the
west for some time. Presently attached with hospitals like Apollo Hospital and Apollo
Clinic, Yasoda Medical Hospital in Bangalore, Dr, Basu thinks that India now provides
world class medical care to most common treatments like heart surgery, knee transplant,
cosmetic surgery and dental care. “Indian corporate hospitals excel in cardiology
and cardiothoracic surgery, joint replacement, orthopedic surgery, gastroenterology,
ophthalmology, transplants and urology to name a few. And this promising fact is
an incentive for the NRI docs to come back home. “Things are changing rapidly for
the better in high-value private health care in India and for the worse for doctors in
general in the US and NRI doctors in particular in the UK. As the economy booms,
corporate hospitals are mushrooming all over the country. These are bringing in the latest
equipment and their practices and standards are increasingly conforming to globally

accepted levels, driven partly by the desire to attract medical tourism,” remarked Dr.
Basu.

Dr. Biswarup Pal, HOD, Dept of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Global Hospitals
and Health City, Chennai, however is little skeptic. He believes that the brighter
areas in health care are seen in urban and semi urban areas and suggests that
the benefits   of the boom in healthcare has to percolate down to common man,
which unfortunately is not happening. “However,” says Dr. Pal, “people have
started making provisions for health care in their financial planning. Though.,
in an estimated manner, I would say this is probably only 5-6% of total Indian
population. But that also says how much more of potential is waiting to be
tapped.”

Medical tourism India (a.k.a. Health Tourism India) is gradually emerging as a
developing concept whereby people from world over visit India for their medical and
relaxation needs. The reason for which, according to the leading doctors of the country,
is because of its infrastructure and technology which is at par with those in USA, UK and
Europe. Patients from Middle East, Mauritius, US, UK, Maldives, Bangladesh, Burma,
Nigeria, Seychelles etc who need surgical procedures like- heart surgeries, orthopedic
surgeries (Joint replacements), advanced laparoscopic surgeries, Cosmetic surgery
etc. are mostly eyeing India as their destination for medical treatment. And cities like
Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Bombay, and Coimbatore are gradually
emerging as hot spots of medical tourism.

“Medical Tourism is heading for a big success. The major cities which attract the medical
tourists are Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi. India is the only mainstream option
that offers a comprehensive solution for any and all medical needs, and does this with
the highest levels of service, facilities, and professional skills. A complex transplant or
bypass procedure can be achieved for a tiny fraction of the cost for the same procedure
in the U.S. This lower cost includes significantly longer post-operative care in the
hospital itself. The costs are usually a lot lower than even the deductable most insurance
companies levy on a patient. Travel Agencies like Easy Tours has strong working
relationships with Escorts Group Hospitals and Research Centers and Apollo Group
Hospitals and Research Centers. This ranges from relationships with the top doctors
and nurse practitioners to the board members and administrators of the institutions. This
allows us to facilitate the highest levels of service combined with the very best medical
treatment possible,” explained Dr. Shantanu Basu

Like it’s said that there is always an other side of a story this one too is not devoid of
one. There still are areas which need to be redresses in the medical scenario of India.
According to D. Pal, India is going to face an acute shortage of proven good
quality specialty and super specialty doctors in coming 2 decades. This, says the
doctor, is because “over last 30-40 yrs, private money in tremendous amount has
been spent on creating mushrooming medical colleges with no quality control.
But, there are hardly enough places to train for high end medical care. This
country, by now should have had at least 2/3 AIIMS(counterpart of IIT/IIM) in

each state for producing doctors to fill up the top of he pyramid. This would
have created enough manpower base to not only cater to our population but also
international medical tourists. The only solution for this is to forge strong public-
private partnership and use private high quality hospitals as training grounds. The
other important area that needs urgent attention is to create an effective, active
health care quality watchdog. The perception outside India is, and its true to a
great extent, that excellence and ordinary to substandard coexist so closely and
comfortably, that its very difficult for an uninformed client to pick up quality out
of this.” Dr. Suvro Banerjee on the other hand feels that the training of the nursing stuffs
and the fourth class staffs in most of the hospitals of the country are not up to the mark.
There is a need for proper training of these people including the sense of hygiene as most
of these people belong to the lower middle class and therefore have a very poor sense of
hygiene.

The decade of 2000-2010 has been a water shade decade for India in terms of economic prosperity and growth. It has changed the perspective of an average Indian towards life in the sense that people of all age group including elderly are looking at future in an optimistic way.

Today, average Indian is keen to obtain health care not just in a compelling life saving situation but also by choice. As a result medical cares like cosmetic surgery, joint replacement, obesity reduction, liver transplantation etc are becoming popular with the day. This situation is only going to expand in this decade which is also being seen as great opportunity for investors and medical professionals.