Medical tourism
Medical tourism or medical travel is a term primarily coined by travel agencies and the mass media to express the rapidly growing practice of travelling across international borders to obtain health care. Services naturally sought by travellers include elective procedures as well as intricate specialized surgeries, such as joint replacement (knee/hip), cardiac surgery, dental surgery, and cosmetic surgeries, etc.
The concept of medical tourism is not a new one. The first recorded instance of medical tourism dates back thousands of years to when Greek pilgrims travelled from all over the Mediterranean to the small territory in the Saronic Gulf called Epidauria. This territory was the refuge of the medicinal idol Asklepios. Epidauria became the original travel destination for medical tourists.
Our neighbouring country India's medical tourism sector is expected to experience an annual growth rate of 30%, making it a Rs. 9,500-crore industry by 2015. Estimates of the value of medical tourism in India will go as high as $2 billion a year by 2012. Because they are providing advantages for medical tourists, which include reduced costs, availability of latest medical technologies, etc. The Indian government is taking steps to address infrastructure issues that hinder the country's growth in medical tourism. The most admired treatments sought in India by medical tourists are alternative medicine, bone-marrow transplant, cardiac bypass surgery, eye surgery and orthopaedic surgery.
Every year many Bangladeshi medical tourists travel around India, Thailand, and Singapore for better treatment. But there is enormous capability of our country to develop medical tourism and earn foreign currency.
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