NEW DELHI: Over 1.4 million medical tourists visited India in the past one year, making it one of the top destinations for medical tourism, said Union Minister of State for Tourism Shripad Naik on Monday.
Highlighting India’s efforts in promoting health and wellness tourism, the minister said the country remained one of the top destinations in this regard.
Foreign tourists travelling to India for medical tourism saw a 66 percent rise in 2021, despite the Covid pandemic. In 2020, at the peak of the Covid outbreak when India was in lockdown and travel was restricted, 1.83 lakh tourists came for medical treatment. The number went up to 3.04 lakh in 2021, the Centre had informed Parliament in March.
Speaking at the second G20 Health Working Group Meeting in Goa, Naik called for a collaborative and sustainable global health strategy.
He also appealed to the delegates to engage in meaningful discussion on various aspects of the global health architecture.
Deleivering the keynote address, Union Minister of State for Health Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar emphasized India's priorities and contributions to global health preparedness.
"India’s G20 priorities focus on reformed multilateralism that creates an accountable, inclusive, equitable and representative forum fit for addressing the many challenges in the 21st century,” she said.
She said India is striving to converge ongoing initiatives towards building resilient healthcare delivery systems supplemented with equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics to ensure that no one is left behind.
She noted that there is a need to leverage the momentum of ongoing discussions in the global health field and focus on critical aspects such as collaborative surveillance, community protection, access to medical countermeasures and emergency coordination. "We cannot be sure of when the next health emergency may hit us," she said.
Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan underscored the need to invest in health systems substantially more than in the past through the “One Health” approach in order to reduce the drivers of pandemic risks.
He emphasised on continuing with the containment and control of Covid-19 by ensuring availability of vaccines and therapeutics.
He also highlighted that while all aspects of pandemic emergency preparedness and response are important, prevention is usually underfinanced relative to preparedness and response.
Towards this, he stated that India welcomes the proposal by the Pandemic Fund focusing on surveillance, lab systems and strengthening the public health workforce.