The central government’s big-ticket project, ‘Heal in India, Heal by India’, is still awaiting its final launch date and is believed to be in the final phase of fine-tuning. The focus via the ‘Heal in India’ initiative is to push medical tourism in India via the tech-heavy portal and seeks to encourage healthcare workers to go abroad.
While the project was expected to be launched formally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, it is awaiting a set of crucial data from hospitals. These two initiatives will present India as “a credible and affordable healthcare destination in the global arena, where quality prevails”, said Dr Abhay Sinha, director general, Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC) – an arm under the ministry of commerce and industry engaged in promotion of India’s medical tourism industry in foreign countries.
“While the data on hospitals was already collected by SEPC for an earlier project (where Prime Minister Modi launched a health tourism portal), the ministry of health and family welfare has taken charge of further development of the main website,” Dr Sinha said.
About 2,000 hospitals, accredited by National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers (NABH), along with 21 medical value tourism companies, also NABH-certified, were chosen. Dr Sinha further said apart from the data collected by SEPC, the idea was to get data directly from hospitals, which is also in the process of being compiled.
“We are now looking at the formal launch of the portal. Our thought process was to launch it at an event jointly conducted by SEPC and FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) on advantage healthcare,” he said. “We have proposed to launch it with Sanjeevani as we were reaching out to the same set of hospitals and the event is supported by the health and commerce ministries.”
Sanjeevani is an exhibition that the export promotion council has been hosting to promote India as a medical care hub of the world.
He added: “That could be a platform to launch these two top-of-the-line health initiatives. We are awaiting the date of the formal launch, even if its launch is not clubbed with Sanjeevani.”
Progress in making the website
While the MVT (medical value travel) market is expected to grow to $53.51 billion (Rs 4,41,600 crore) by 2028 at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.1 percent, India is expected to become the crucial part of this growth.
Dr Sinha said for Heal by India, the SEPC had observed that several hospitals were already showcasing their credentials on foreign land. Several Indian hospitals had collaborated with hospitals abroad and, in fact, been organising out-patient department facilities as well if not full-fledged facilities, he added.
“We have also been studying several other platforms to make this portal even better and prove its worth as a ‘one-stop shop’ solution,” he said.
Once the website is started, it will also include testimonials from patients and families to encourage and inspire other medical tourists. According to industry experts, the schemes will place India in a strategic position globally with respect to medical tourism.
“The medical value tourism sector in India has a lot of potential for growth and the government’s Heal in India initiative will help us claim a bigger portion of the pie, globally,” said Rajeev Taneja, founder, Global Care – an MVT company.
“With the Heal in India initiative, the sector will not only witness an increased influx of overseas patients and strategic partnerships…” he said.
He said the portal will remove unpleasant experiences documented by international patients in India. “The portal will offer various services to foreign patients, including addressing queries, intercity/intracity travel coordination, airport transfer coordination, documentation etc. This will not only streamline these tedious processes but also remove any room for error or unpleasant experiences,” he added.
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