Tuesday, February 1 2005 22:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: With an increasing number of foreign patients flocking to India for treatment, the country could earn Rs 100 billion through 'Medical Tourism' by 2012, a study has indicated.

According to the study conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry and McKinsey consultants, last year some 150,000 foreigners visited India for treatment, with the number rising by 15 per cent a year.

With a large pool of highly trained doctors and low treatment cost, healthcare aims to replicate the Indian software sector's success. Built on acres of land the new sleek medical centres of excellence offer developed world treatment at developing world prices, a report in 'The Guardian' said today (Feb 1, 2005).

A number of private hospitals also offer packages designed to attract wealthy foreign patients, with airport-to-hospital bed car service, in-room internet access and private chefs. Another trend is to combine surgery in India with a yoga holiday or trip to the world famous Taj Mahal.

The report said it is not just cost but competency that is India's selling point. Naresh Trehan, who worked as a heart surgeon in Manhattan but returned to start Escorts hospital group in India, was quoted as saying that his hospital in Delhi completed 4,200 heart operations last year.

"That is more than anyone else in the world. The death rate for coronary bypass patients at Escorts is 0.8 per cent and the infection rate is 0.3 per cent. This is well below the first-world averages of 1.2 per cent for the death rate and 1 per cent for infections," he said.