Health Care in India

beach

This is about medical treatments in India.

I’ve come across with many people coming to India for undergoing cardiac to dental surgeries plus tour. There are many hospitals in the major cities of India having marketing offices abroad including in the west. The facilities and capabilities of such hospitals are comparable to the world standards. The attraction is the cost. This could be as low as 20% of that at the west. The most popular and common is the orthodontics procedures. Know the right hospital and you can approach the customer care offices of the hospitals for the options. A large numbers of them are competing to attract patients from abroad.

A few are listed.

www.icvd.org
Madras Medical Mission (The Institute of Cardio Vascular Diseases) is a super-specialty hospital dealing with cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery. They do about 2000 cardiothoracic surgeries annually. This is located at Chennai

www.srmc.edu
Sri Ramachandra Medical College & Research Institute (SRMC) is a multispecialty hospital with deemed university status.

www.apollohospitals.com
Apollo Hospital is pioneer in hitechnology health care in India. They have a number of hospitals in India and abroad with impressive capabilities.

www.aravind.org
Aravind Eye Care System is a charitable organization with commendable contribution in ophthalmic care.

www.aimshospital.org
Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (AIMS) is a multi specialty hospital located at Cochin. This is a mission hospital of Mata Amritanandamayi.


www.miothospitals.com
MIOT Hospital has specialties in Joint Replacement Surgeries, Orthopedics and Trauma.

www.hrudayalaya.com
Narayana Hrudayalaya is a huge cardiac specialty hospital at Bangalore that perform about 25 cardiac surgeries a day!

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Hampi info

beach

Many people from the developed world come to India for the rejuvenation promised by yoga and ayurvedic massage, but few consider it a destination for hip replacements or brain surgery. BBC report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3467105.stm

freemanx

i am actually thinking about having my teeth done

LuAnnandJawahar

Yikes. Not so sure this is a great idea. Maybe 10 years from now. Unless you don't have a problem seeing rats in your hospital, and I mean one of the best in southwest India! (One of the best hospitals, not one of the best rats, though it was quite large.)

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Reject violence.

concoran

NIT, may be this is a better report
Scot's praise for Indian surgeons

beach

India’s healthcare sector has made rapid strides in recent years. This $17 billion industry, growing at 13 per cent a year, has been attracting patients from all over the world, particularly from Europe and the US, in addition to those from West Asia and neighbouring countries. Many of these patients have endorsed the high quality of medical services at a cost considerably lower than in the West. In addition, India’s specialised hospitals have joined hands with the tourism industry to offer the benefits of high-class medicare, coupled with a stay in soothing and scenic environs.

Full story@ The Financial Express

tukat

I seriously considered doing invitro fertilization (testtube baby) in Mumbai last year and consulted via email with a few clinics. This is very expensive & usually not covered by insurance in USA. Many NRI's * go "home" for IVF as well as other things like dental work & laser eye surgery. (I also participate in an online forum with indian women living in USA dealing with iinfertility)
Decided it was just too complicated to do away from home, also the clinics were promising way too high success rates which made me suspicious, as I know what the succes rates are here at best USA clinic. Instead we had a nice Indian vacation! Medical tourism probably works out better for NRI's who have friends & family in India who know the MD's & the reputations of the different hospitals. My relatives don't know any medical people.
* everybody probably already knows what NRI is, but in case you don't: Non Resident Indian.

beach

Digital Drifter

Low Costs Lure Foreigners to India for Medical Care

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/07/bu.../07health.html

BANGALORE, India, April 6 - Until recently, Robert Beeney, a 64-year-old real estate consultant from San Francisco, lived in pain. But when he finally decided to do something about the discomfort, he spurned all the usual choices.

His doctors advised that he get his hip joint replaced, which his insurer would pay for, but after doing some research on the Internet, he decided to get a different procedure - joint resurfacing - not covered by his insurance. And instead of going to a nearby hospital, he chose to go to India and paid $6,600, a fraction of the $25,000 he would have paid at home for the surgery.

[...]

xealot

What about regular optometry and purchasing glasses ... I know this isn't as exhorbitantly expensive in the western world; as many other treatments metioned are. Nonetheless, howcheap/simple/quick is it too see a good optometrist, purchase frames and have lenses put in whilst in India (I was thinking Chennai specifically)?

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Laziness is not a real word! It's most literal translation is "Differing Priorities"

gs_uppal

Take appointment with an Opthalmologist/optometrist, in one sitting he'll give you the specs of your lenses. Go to a good Optician nearby ( A shop selling frames and who make lenses), choose your frame and in most cases in 24 hours or next evening he'll give you your glasses.

artwallah

I have gotten new glasses each time I've gone to India and been more than pleased at them. Last time, I got no line bifocals in Mysore for US $85. Would have cost over $200 here. Just bring your prescription from your eye doctor.

john.sw

Last month my wife had a serious allergic reaction that caused her face to start swelling.

After a while she was finding it difficult to swallow, which is a symptom of Anaphylactic Shock so we got to the Medical Centre in Kottayam, Kerala as quickly as possible.

We arrived after two hours of travelling by boat and car.

After queuing at the main entrance for a few moments, we were told to go to Accident & Emergency, a few metres away.

We were greeted by a doctor and a few nurses, and before long, a diagnosis had been made.

I always carry a first aid kit with sterile hypodermic needles, syringes, etc. when I travel, but I didn’t need it as Ruth was given an intravenous steroid and adrenalin injection with a new, sterilised needle and syringe, and a prescription for a course of steroid tablets.

The accident and emergency room was a bit grubby, by English standards, and there were a couple of geckos on the walls. This was nothing to worry about – I have never heard of an MRSA epidemic in India!

The young doctor spoke perfect English, and was planning to visit the UK for four months to get an English medical qualification. I hope he will come and stay with us when he is here.

The nurses were all very kind, and my wife didn’t even feel the injection!

The charge for the treatment, including the prescription was UK £0.51 (Rs.42/-)

Of course we made a donation to the hospital charity.

The last time I used Accident & Emergency in the UK we waited over four hours to be seen by a grumpy, disinterested English doctor.

Thank goodness that 30% of doctors in the UK Health Service are Indian!

Digital Drifter

you chaps a bit harsh on the NHS, for something which is essentially free. Pardon me for my ignorance, I thought that's where most of your taxes went and if it covers the entire country, there are bound to be delays, is it not?

john.sw

How can it be free if we pay heavily for it through our taxes?

The truth is, the NHS is inefficient, top heavy with bureaucracy, and it can be dangerous!

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The number of deaths in the UK in which the hospital superbug MRSA played a part has doubled in the last four years.

The figures illustrate the scale of the battle which the government has on its hands in meeting one of its key health targets to halve the rates of MRSA infection by March 2008.

The number of death certificates which mentioned MRSA went up from 487 in 1999 to 955 in 2003, according to the National Statistics office.

In the last year the number of death certificates which referred to the superbug increased by 19% while the number of laboratory reports of MRSA for 2003 compiled by the Health Protection Agency was 7%.

Last year MRSA was responsible for 16.3 deaths per million male population, compared with a rate of 14.8 the previous year. The rate for female MRSA deaths was 7.0 for 2002 up to 8.5 the following year.

Commenting on the figures, the chief nursing officer, Christine Beasley, said: "There is no one simple solution to preventing infection, but we are taking a whole range of actions in fighting the superbug."

The Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, Paul Burstow, said:"Labour has made things worse by giving political targets a higher priority than cleaning hospitals and fighting infections."

The Conservative leader, Michael Howard, entered the MRSA debate when he highlighted the results of a National Audit Office report which he said showed that one-in-10 infection control inspectors had reported that NHS chief executives had refused or discouraged suggestions that wards should be closed on cleanliness grounds.

He said their reluctance to act was influenced by their desire to meet performance indicators. He said: "This means patients are dying because of Mr Blair's targets."

Source: The Guardian