India’s National Health Authority (NHA) is in the process of setting up a dedicated portal to connect foreign patients with reputed Indian hospitals so that they get quality care which in turn boosts medical tourism. NRIs and Overseas Citizens of India also stand to gain from this move.

Promoting transparency and accountability in the medical tourism segment, the portal will provide a list of medical services, charges and all other relevant information so that the medical tourists can take an informed decision. The Central Government intends to showcase the country as a preferred medical tourism destination through this move.

Patients from African countries as wells Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Syria, Bhutan, apart from the Middle East are keen on getting affordable and advanced care in several departments and India has been tapping this opportunity for sometime before Covid-19 interrupted. However, activities have now resumed and not only for emergency procedures but also for elective surgeries, medical value travellers have started returning to India. Cosmetic surgery, bariatric surgery, orthopedic surgery, cardiac surgery, and hip and knee replacement are among the picks for the foreign crowd.

The NHA itself has a network of over 25,000 hospitals in the country while established private hospitals in metro cities continue to be the pick of discerning medical value travelers. The NHA seeks to take a lead role in medical tourism with this initiative with its elaborate resources so that an institutional framework for medical tourism emerges.