Karnataka's medical tourism system will be improved to eliminate middlemen: Health minister

BENGALURU: With the medical tourism ecospace increasingly being overrun by middlemen, the health and family welfare department is contemplating models aimed at offering quality medical care at reasonable costs to international patients.
Speaking with various medical representatives here on Saturday, health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said, "The idea of health tourism stemmed from the conversations about how many international patients come to Bengaluru for quality healthcare. However, it was brought to my attention that a lot of the expenditure is going towards people who are in between, acting as third parties, who are making this a business model. To avoid this, we want to create a transparent system that would help both our hospitals and people seeking medical treatment."
"... Maybe we can come up with a govt portal with all the accredited hospitals in the city, so that patients coming from abroad can see the services offered by our city hospitals. While our priorities remain to serve the people of Karnataka, we're only planning this to make sure people who come to the city aren't cheated," he explained.
Karnataka has over 92 hospitals accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers, with 65 being in Bengaluru.
Tourism department director Rajendra KV said, "We can combine health tourism with wellness tourism. Karnataka offers enormous wildlife, wildlife sanctuaries, and more than five national parks. We can package this experience by offering seven days of treatment in hospital followed by 20 days of wellness tourism. This way, we can generate a significant amount of foreign exchange."
Bengaluru sees a mix of patients coming from South Africa, the Middle East, Bangladesh, and the US. Usually, they come for elective surgeries like knee and hip replacements, said health representatives.