Managing the growth of medical tourism in India by public-private partnerships

A developing country like India is emerging as a world class medical tourist market in the world, emphasized by world class technology-intensive medical equipment, highly qualified and experienced expertise of medical professionals, the cost-effectiveness of the medical procedures– and above all low cost medical-tourist package for foreigners along with recovery and rest in a five star medical-tourism resort for the patients and accompanying family members. Moreover, it can be argued that public and private sector partnerships is essential between the various key stake holders for providing accredited, efficient, effective, equitable and good quality of health care for the long term sustainability of the medical tourism industry for the host country, given the increasing competition to maximise their participation in the global economy, as well as to guarantee quality of service, infrastructure needs, reasonable price, accreditation and handling of any legal disputes. Like many countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, India also promotes medical tourism through government support and National Health Policy (NHP) reform of 2002 drafted by Prime Minister’s advisory council on Trade and Industry, which treats this industry legally as an ‘export sector’ eligible for all fiscal incentives extended to all types of export earnings. This conceptual paper examines the growth of medical tourism in India and public and private partnerships. Part one introduces the importance of medical tourism and its growth in India. Part two reviews the literature and examines its significance as a major source of export revenue. Part three considers how the adoption of PPP/PFI policy will promote the sustainable growth of medical tourism industry in India and make it globally competitive health care destination. Finally, part four provides has some concluding comments.