BENGALURU: With international travellers banned from entering the state, hospitals claim medical tourism has been hit big time. In Bengaluru, the hub of medical tourism, hospital authorities say patients have stopped making bookings since the first week of March itself. However, patients who are already in the country before the visa ban, are getting their procedures done.
Many foreign patients come to India for affordable treatment, but the increase in coronavirus cases is taking a toll on medical tourism. Vice-president and Bengaluru cluster head of Rainbow Children’s Hospital, Mr Neeraj Lal, said due to travel restrictions, the hospital’s medical tourism department is seeing several cancellations of scheduled arrivals of patients. “Across specialties - pediatric orthopedics, infertility and pediatric neurology - 17 arrivals have been cancelled,” he said.
“Though this is a discouraging trend, it is a good decision for the safety of patients, their relatives and for the medical fraternity,” said Dr Dilip Jose, MD and CEO, Manipal Health Enterprises. “Getting stuck here with no option to go back or staying in quarantine for 15 days is an additional burden on the patient,” he said.
Narayana Health City’s COO, Joseph Pasangha, said, “We get a large number of patients from West Bengal. Now, no patients are coming. However, with international patients, we haven’t seen much of a change.”