Medical tourism in India

Medical tourism in India is a growing sector within the country's economy. In 2022, India's medical tourism sector was estimated to be worth US$9 billion. Approximately 2 million patients visit India each year from 78 countries for medical, wellness and IVF treatments, generating $6 billion for the industry which is expected to reach $13 billion by 2026 and is backed by the Indian government's Heal in India initiative. According to a report from 2019 by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Ernst & Young, most of the medical patients arrivals in India were from Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa, and SAARC region. India also receives significant number of medical patients from Australia, Canada, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The city of Chennai has come to be known as the healthcare capital of India.
To encourage applications and ease the travel process for medical tourists, the India government has expanded its e-tourism visa regime in February 2019. The maximum duration of stay under this visa is 6 months. Since 30 August 2019, foreigners can receive any medical treatment in India with the exception of organ transplants without a medical visa.
In Aug 2023, the Government of India's Ministry of Home Affairs has announced the creation of the Ayush Visa category for foreign nationals at promoting travel healthcare in India and also and also tech-savvy companies are now stepping in to address this gap, offering online medical tourism in India.
Advantages of medical treatment in India include reduced costs, the availability of latest medical technologies, and compliance on international quality standards, doctors trained in western countries including the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as English-speaking personnel, due to which foreigners are less likely to face language barriers in India.
Most estimates found that treatment costs in India start at around one-tenth of the price of comparable treatment in the United States or the United Kingdom. The most popular treatments sought in India by medical tourists are alternative medicine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac bypass, eye surgery, and joint replacement.
India has 839 NABH accredited hospitals. However, for a patient traveling to India, it is important to find the optimal doctor-hospital combination. After the patient has been treated, the patient has the option of either recuperating in the hospital or at a paid accommodation nearby. Many hospitals also give the option of continuing the treatment through telemedicine. A 2024 meta-analysis evaluating India’s medical tourism sector highlighted variations in treatment success rates across different hospitals. The study found that while India excels in affordability and expertise, inconsistencies in postoperative care and patient follow-ups remain key concerns, emphasizing the need for standardized protocols.
The city of Chennai has been termed "India's health capital". Multi- and super-specialty hospitals across the city bring in an estimated 150 international patients every day. Chennai attracts about 45 percent of health tourists from abroad arriving in the country and 30 to 40 percent of domestic health tourists. Factors behind the tourists inflow in the city include low costs, little to no waiting period, and facilities offered at the specialty hospitals in the city. The city has an estimated 12,500 hospital beds, of which only half is used by the city's population with the rest being shared by patients from other states of the country and foreigners. Dental clinics have attracted dental care tourism to Chennai.
Private institutions and organizations such as Max Healthcare have consulted and treated up to 50,000 foreign patients in hospitals across the country.
The promotion of medical tourism in India has helped private players capitalize on this market opportunity.
According to Pankaj Chandna, Co-founder of Vaidam Health
According to Darpan Jain, Joint Secretary of the Indian government's Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry:
Bengaluru, Chandigarh Capital Region (CCR), Delhi NCR including Gurugram and Faridabad, Jaipur, Kerala, Kolkata, and Mumbai are other Medical tourism hubs in India. Hisar Medicity is an upcoming hub, which was under planning and construction in 2021.
The government has removed visa restrictions on tourist visas that required a two-month gap between consecutive visits for people from Gulf countries which is likely to boost medical tourism. A visa-on-arrival scheme for tourists from select countries has been instituted which allows foreign nationals to stay in India for 30 days for medical reasons. In 2016, citizens of Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Maldives, Republic of Korea and Nigeria availed the most medical visas.
Despite India's diversity of languages, English is an official language and is widely spoken by most people and almost universally by medical professionals. In Noida, a number of hospitals have hired language translators to make patients from Balkan and African countries feel more comfortable while at the same time helping in the facilitation of their treatment.
A large number of medical tourism companies are facilitating foreigners, especially patients from Arabic, Russian and English-speaking countries.
In November 2019, a report from The Economic Times stated that of all medical tourist arrivals in India, Maharashtra receives 27%, Chennai receives around 15%, and Kerala receives nearly 5–7% of them.
According to Huffington Post, doctors spoke about the problems with "corporate hospitals" and senior surgeons being told to sell surgeries to their patients even if they weren't needed. In one instance, a doctor was told he would be sacked if he didn't have enough patients to operate on. The majority of India's private, for-profit hospitals charge exorbitant costs for medical services and supplies, which has put a strain on the country's public finances.
Russia Beyond notes that of the estimated 300,000 Russian medical tourists who travel worldwide every year for healthcare, India receives over 70,000 of them.