Booster for medical tourism in Ahmedabad

Move over from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Now, Ahmedabad is your destination if you are looking for world-class medical care at about one-tenth of the costs you would have to pay in developed countries like the US and the UK.

The city, in particular, and the state in general, are fast growing into a medical hub in terms of providing quality healthcare to people with zero waiting periods. In the next few months, Ahmedabad city will see coming up of at least three private super and multi-speciality hospitals. Just two weeks back, a multi-speciality hospital, CIMS, came up near Science City.

While these hospitals will cater  to the needs of anybody who needs quality healthcare and can afford to pay, they will particularly focus on targeting the huge number of NRGs who are always on the lookout for world-class healthcare at cheap rates. There are about six million NRGs the world over and they constitute about 30% of the 20 million-plus NRIs.

In 2009, Gujarat saw a growth of 33% in medical tourism in comparison to the country’s 20%. Now, it is predicted that the upcoming hospitals will help the state take the growth further.

Now, about 1,500 NRGs and a few foreigners come to the city every year for medical treatment. The number is expected to increase much higher when the new hospitals are operational.

One of the three hospitals is Shalby 2, which will be a 500-bed multi-speciality hospital in Bopal. Says Dr. Vikram Shah, founder of Shalby Hospitals: “We are setting up Shalby 2 near Bopal with a capacity of 500 beds. Shalby 1 has 230 beds.

Focusing on the rising demands and aiming to transform the city into a preferred medical hub, we are launching one of the biggest corporate hospitals in a month.    

Until recently, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai were the most
preferred medical tourist destinations, but the scene will
change now.’’

The NRGs take interest in the super speciality hospitals in the city because they get ‘tailored’ medical packages and attractive discounts from here. The new super speciality hospitals to be launched soon will cater to the specific demands of the market segment that seeks quality, personalised care and attention of super-specialist physicians. The other hospital coming up is in Memnagar and this will be a super speciality gastroenterology hospital.

“We are about to launch the first gastroenterology hospital in western India which would offer the latest GI surgeries, advanced laparoscopic surgeries and in-house radiology and pathology services. This five-floored unit is equipped with the latest methodology to attend to the gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD), a lifestyle induced disease which is on an alarming rise in the recent times,”  said Dr Sanjeev Haribhakti, one of the three gastroenterologists setting up the hospital. The Zydus Group is setting up city’s tallest multi-speciality hospital near Sola. Besides, two super-speciality orthopaedic hospitals are coming up in Vadodara and Surat.

“We are now executing the projects of building one orthopaedic hospital each in Vadodara and Rajkot,’’ said Chirag Shah, a hospital construction specialist.