BENGALURU: ADVANTAGE Healthcare India, a global summit on medical value travel, began on Thursday, where IT secretary announced that the state would soon introduce a medical tourism policy. The three-day event is meant to promote India as a premier global healthcare destination and enable streamlined exports of healthcare services. Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, Department of IT, Biotechnology and Tourism, said, “Karnataka is home to 56 medical colleges and offers the highest number of MBBS seats in India. Considering this, we are shortly going to come out with a medical and wellness tourism policy for Karnataka.
It proposes to set up a marketing fund for promoting the state as a medical value travel destination and give financial assistance to entrepreneurs for wellness tourism.” India is a key medical value travel destination in Asia, with more than 5,00,000 foreign patients seeking treatment. “Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore have some of the best hospitals in Asia, while Udupi, Gokarna, Mysuru and Bijapur have developed as wellness destinations. The state boasts of direct connectivity with world capitals, eastern healthcare wisdom and expertise in western medicine. There are 19 NABH accredited hospitals in Bengaluru,” he said. Over 70 countries and 700 hosted buyers from across the world participated in the summit, along with thousands of business visitors from India and abroad.
The exhibition is hosting more than 160 exhibitors to showcase medical services and expertise. Participants at Advantage Healthcare India 2017 include international hospitals, government organisations, insurance firms, medical tourism organisations, global medical associations, doctors, and investors.