India's Ministry of Tourism Additional Secretary Rakesh Kumar Verma has said that the country offers the best of both modern and traditional systems of medicines and can provide holistic healing to people from across the world.

 

He said this while speaking at a session, ‘Heal in India – Rejuvenate the Body, Mind and the Soul’ during the Tourism Week at the India Pavilion, Expo 2020 Dubai.

 

Verma said: “Our country is one of the prominent destinations for medical tourism owing to the availability of quality healthcare treatment facilities at considerably low cost. The Indian systems of medicines such as Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, etc. are among the most ancient systems of medical treatment. 

 

“The number of international patients increased from 430,000 in 2016 to 700,000 in 2019, with an estimated market size in the range of $6 billion in 2019. Some estimates suggest $9 billion in 2020 before the pandemic hit.”

 

Talking about the potential of medical tourism in India, he said, “India has become a favourite destination for yoga and wellness with its focus on traditional therapies through Ayush – the government of India recognises medical value travel and wellness tourism as important sectors having the potential of accelerating the country's development and attaining the objective of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.”

 

Verma added: “The Ministry of Tourism constituted National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board to provide dedicated institutional framework for the promotion of medical and wellness tourism, including Indian system of medicine. We are developing the ‘Heal in India’ brand to market India as a medical and wellness tourism destination. Under the campaign, an integrated communication strategy to promote brand India will be prepared and executed in partnership with the industry.”

 

Through a virtual address, Dr Atul Mohan Kochhar, CEO, National Accreditation Board for Hospitals & Healthcare Providers, said: “We started with one programme in 2006, now we are running 21 programmes under the accreditation, certification and empanelment arms. We have also partnered with more than 12,000 hospitals and are actively collaborating with NHA (National Health authority) and Ayushman Bharat Yojana to create a strong system for transparent medical care.”

 

Addressing the session virtually, Prof Randeep Guleria, Director, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said: “India has the advantage of providing holistic care using alternate medicine, Ayurveda and other methods including yoga and allopathy. Therefore, we need to look at preventive health packages and treatment health packages specially for patients who have non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, artery disease, or chronic respective diseases.”

 

The session was also attended by other experts in India's healthcare industry.-TradeArabia News Service