Key reasons for medical travel from Bangladesh to India

There is an increasing evidence of people from Bangladesh travelling to neighbouring countries of Asia, such as India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore for medical treatment due to high cost, poor quality of healthcare service delivery and lack or non-availability of speciality medical treatment and medical facilities. Medical tourism is a practise where people travel to other countries for medical treatment due to various push factors in their home country which prevents them for getting appropriate medical treatment such as: high cost of treatment, long waiting period, non-availability of treatment, lack of medical facilities and proper care, lack of trained doctors and nurses, corruption and inadequate public or private medical facilities. This study is based on qualitative and quantitative analysis to examine why people are travelling from Bangladesh to India for medical treatment in particular. A questionnaire was prepared and data was randomly collected from six divisional cities of Bangladesh: Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshai, Barisal and Khulna and two districts Comilla and Bogra. A total of 1282 participants returned the questionnaires out of 1450. Data was analysed using regression analysis. The results concluded that the pull factors that motivated Bangladeshis to travel to capital cities in India for medical treatment were: low cost of surgery, qualified experienced doctors, quality of nursing care, non-availability of treatment in Bangladesh, and state of the art medical facilities and treatment in India, which concurs with the literature.