The government is considering providing visa-on-arrival and e-visa facilities for people travelling from the US and some European countries for medical treatment in India, said Piyush Goyal, Union minister for commerce and industry, on Tuesday. He said that the government will also support the proposal to allow non-resident Indian (NRI) doctors to come to India and operate patients if the regulatory body Indian Medical Association (IMA) agrees to the proposal.
There are many countries where we allow visa-on-arrival or e-visa facilities where the visa is granted within 24 or 48 hours. Both these can be considered for the US and for most of the European countries where we have a fair amount of comfort and where detailed investigations are not required,” Goyal said at the CII Annual Health Summit in New Delhi.
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The minister said that medical tourism is a $800-billion market, and could well be over a trillion dollar market if wellness or preventive care segments are included. “We are looking at a colossal business opportunity with India’s share being minuscule at the moment. We have not been able to capture the market as yet possibly because of the infrastructural challenges or maybe we need to make some amendments in our regulatory practices,” he said.
Goyal said that medical tourism adds to India’s GDP, foreign exchange income and exports. “India offers affordability. A treatment here would cost one-fourth of what’s required anywhere else in the world. There are countries where medical treatment is given as part of the social welfare spend. But there is a huge waiting period. Even to get a dental appointment, it takes 6 months. It’s probably easier to fly in (to India), and get the treatment done. It’s faster, costs less and possibly better,” Goyal said.
Goyal said that GST on a number of medicines have been brought down to zero or 5% in the recent rate cuts, and there have been suggestions from the industry to consider reducing duties on more medicines to make them affordable. “We will be happy to hear more specific details from the industry so that we can give it a consideration,” he said.
The minister further said that the government is committed to promoting the healthcare sector, evident in the doubling of medical colleges over the past decade and a major expansion of medical seats planned over the next five years.
“India’s consumer healthcare spending is rising, and the government’s healthcare spending is also going up. When our government came in 2014, there were just seven AIIMS and we had only 387 medical colleges. We have been able to grow this to 23 AIIMS. At the same time, medical colleges have almost doubled to 706 because we recognised that we need more doctors,” he said.
Goyal said that the demand for Indian nurses and caregivers within the country and abroad has grown tremendously. “Some of our nurses and caregivers have a high premium value. There are countries who are willing to take in our nurses and caregivers at phenomenal salaries. We need to upgrade the nursing programmes. I would urge reputed hospitals in the country to work out a mechanism to increase the output of nurses to about 100,000 nurses a year,” the minister said.
