SAS NAGAR (MOHALI): The second day of the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit – 2019 on Friday saw delegates call for more international flights to the state to harness its massive potential to emerge as a medical tourism hub.
With its state-of-the-art infrastructure, skilled manpower and government support to set up new multi-speciality hospitals, coupled with its vibrant hospitality sector, Punjab was an ideal state to emerge as a hub of medical tourism, pointed out delegates at the session on ‘Developing Punjab into a Hub
of International and Domestic Medical Tourism’.
The only thing the Punjab government needs to do is to press upon the Centre to bring more direct international flights to the state from CIS Nations such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and to cater to NRI populations in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand, the delegates stressed.
At the onset, Anurag Aggarwal, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Punjab, gave a detailed presentation highlighting the availability of world-class medical healthcare infrastructure, skilled manpower and the roadmap of the Punjab government for futuristic endeavours in the health sector.
He noted that the 100-bed Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital established in Sangrur in collaboration with Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, had treated 7000 patients in just two years and registered 12,000 patients in five years.
A new Medicity for medical eco-system over a projected area of 350 acres would be coming up by next year adjoining Chandigarh, he said, adding that prominent healthcare players were setting up their healthcare establishments in it.
Dr KK Talwar said that Punjab was already witnessing medical tourism from Central Asian nations, US, UK-based NRIs and from adjoining states such as Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. This, he said, was due to the strong presence of a healthcare delivery ecosystem, with over 2173 multi-specialty and super-speciality hospitals equipped with advanced treatment facilities for
eye-surgery, cardiology, IVF, hip & knee replacement, dental surgery, gall bladder removal etc.
This ecosystem is complemented by a strong presence of academia spanning the ecosystem, from medical colleges to nursing colleges, pharmacy colleges & research institutions, thus providing the necessary human capital, he added.
Senior doctors from hospitals in Mumbai, Kerala, New Delhi, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Mohali and Ludhiana attended the session.