Bangladesh health tourism back on its feet in Kolkata

[Black_cats]

Bangladesh health tourism back on its feet in Kolkata​

Prithvijit Mitra / TNN / Updated: Mar 4, 2022, 07:21 IST

Image used for representational purpose

KOLKATA: Patients from Bangladesh are streaming back to several private hospitals in Kolkata, much to the relief of the latter which depend on them for revenues. While their number had dropped to almost zero after the second wave, it has now jumped to around 50% of the pre-pandemic footfall, helped by the fact that land travel to and from Bangladesh resumed on February 25.

Hospitals pointed out that the number of patients from the eastern neighbours would have been even higher had the third wave not peaked in Bangladesh in late-January and continued till the second of half of February.

By mid-January, RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS), which admitted 250 Bangladeshi patients a month and had a daily OPD attendance of 150 from the country before March 2020, had started receiving around 125 OPD patients from the country. “Admissions, too, had been rising but then the third wave peaked in Bangladesh and the flow ebbed. It has started crawling up with the opening of the land route and the slowing down of the third wave. We are now getting around 80 OPD patients and admitting around 100 a month,” said RTIICS zonal head R Venkatesh. Bangladeshi patients contributed around 10%-12% of RTIICS’s revenue till the pandemic.

At Peerless Hospital, the number of Bangladeshi patients has jumped to 40-50 a day at the OPD from zero in early-January. Three-four are now being admitted everyday. “We would receive 100-150 OPD patients from Bangladesh daily till Covid struck. Ever since, the number has never been higher than 25% of that figure,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra.

A large number of Bangladeshi patients had been forced to discontinue their treatment and defer their surgeries last year due to the second wave. With travel restrictions on and medical visas curtailed, it had been difficult for them, said AMRI Hospitals CEO Rupak Barua.

“As the OPD footfall rises, many of these will be converted into admissions. We are giving priority to those who had sought treatment earlier but had to suspend it due to Covid. By mid-March, our Bangladeshi patient count should cross 3,000, which is more than what we had before the pandemic,” said Barua.

While some hospitals rued that medical visas are still not being issued liberally, others said more tourist visas are being issued. “Most are dropping in with a tourist visa, which suffices for OPD treatment but you need a medical visa to get admitted. So, our admission desk has been helping patients get one through liaison with the embassy and assisting patients with the formalities,” said Venkatesh.

Barua said very few tourist visas were being issued only for those travelling by flights. “It would have been easier to convert them to medical visas here but there are very few flights from Bangladesh now,” he said.

Fortis has seen Bangladeshi footfall jump from 100 in January to 150 last month. “International business has not recovered to the levels of December and we are still at 60% levels of our peak. Compared to January, the footfall has seen a rise,” said Pratyush Srivastava, zonal director of Fortis.

Bangla Health Tourism Back On Its Feet | Kolkata News - Times of India

Patients from Bangladesh are streaming back to several private hospitals in Kolkata, much to the relief of the latter which depend on them for revenu

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

[Bilal9]

Kolkata medical charges are quite a bit higher than that charged in say Chennai or other places in the South.

With introduction of Dhaka-Chennai flights, this medical tourism to Chennai will get easier for Bangladesh patients.

 

[bluesky]

Bangladesh health tourism back on its feet in Kolkata

Let Kolkata health and commodity businesses survive and our patients get rid of their diseases and regain their health.

 

[mb444]

This nonsense needs to be stopped. All those going must get clearance from authorities that checks that they have paid taxes. No tax- No clearance.

BD also needs to place a punitive tax on medical tourist and channel tax receipts in to our public health infastructure.

BD also needs to introduce absolue quota on medical tourists that reduces every year to create the impetus for BD private sector and also foreign medical institutions to set up in BD itself.

BD should consider this an absolute policy and financial disaster.

 

[Joe Shearer]

Bangladesh health tourism back on its feet in Kolkata​

Prithvijit Mitra / TNN / Updated: Mar 4, 2022, 07:21 IST

Image used for representational purpose

KOLKATA: Patients from Bangladesh are streaming back to several private hospitals in Kolkata, much to the relief of the latter which depend on them for revenues. While their number had dropped to almost zero after the second wave, it has now jumped to around 50% of the pre-pandemic footfall, helped by the fact that land travel to and from Bangladesh resumed on February 25.

Hospitals pointed out that the number of patients from the eastern neighbours would have been even higher had the third wave not peaked in Bangladesh in late-January and continued till the second of half of February.

By mid-January, RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIICS), which admitted 250 Bangladeshi patients a month and had a daily OPD attendance of 150 from the country before March 2020, had started receiving around 125 OPD patients from the country. “Admissions, too, had been rising but then the third wave peaked in Bangladesh and the flow ebbed. It has started crawling up with the opening of the land route and the slowing down of the third wave. We are now getting around 80 OPD patients and admitting around 100 a month,” said RTIICS zonal head R Venkatesh. Bangladeshi patients contributed around 10%-12% of RTIICS’s revenue till the pandemic.

At Peerless Hospital, the number of Bangladeshi patients has jumped to 40-50 a day at the OPD from zero in early-January. Three-four are now being admitted everyday. “We would receive 100-150 OPD patients from Bangladesh daily till Covid struck. Ever since, the number has never been higher than 25% of that figure,” said Peerless Hospital CEO Sudipta Mitra.

A large number of Bangladeshi patients had been forced to discontinue their treatment and defer their surgeries last year due to the second wave. With travel restrictions on and medical visas curtailed, it had been difficult for them, said AMRI Hospitals CEO Rupak Barua.

“As the OPD footfall rises, many of these will be converted into admissions. We are giving priority to those who had sought treatment earlier but had to suspend it due to Covid. By mid-March, our Bangladeshi patient count should cross 3,000, which is more than what we had before the pandemic,” said Barua.

While some hospitals rued that medical visas are still not being issued liberally, others said more tourist visas are being issued. “Most are dropping in with a tourist visa, which suffices for OPD treatment but you need a medical visa to get admitted. So, our admission desk has been helping patients get one through liaison with the embassy and assisting patients with the formalities,” said Venkatesh.

Barua said very few tourist visas were being issued only for those travelling by flights. “It would have been easier to convert them to medical visas here but there are very few flights from Bangladesh now,” he said.

Fortis has seen Bangladeshi footfall jump from 100 in January to 150 last month. “International business has not recovered to the levels of December and we are still at 60% levels of our peak. Compared to January, the footfall has seen a rise,” said Pratyush Srivastava, zonal director of Fortis.

Bangla Health Tourism Back On Its Feet | Kolkata News - Times of India

Patients from Bangladesh are streaming back to several private hospitals in Kolkata, much to the relief of the latter which depend on them for revenu

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

This is ridiculous, to issue medical visas only to those arriving on flights. What is being implied?

Kolkata medical charges are quite a bit higher than that charged in say Chennai or other places in the South.

With introduction of Dhaka-Chennai flights, this medical tourism to Chennai will get easier for Bangladesh patients.

I hope they are being guided properly. As long as I can remember, patients from Calcutta, Indians, have travelled to Christian Medical College, Vellore, for outstanding treatment, perhaps the best in the sub-continent.

Then come the famous clutch of hospitals in Chennai; the para around Apollo has the only tolerable Bengali food in Chennai!

What people may not know is that Bengaluru is challenging Chennai nowadays. However, with that maladministration in power, it is not a trip I can recommend at the moment; Indians, yes, foreigners, no.

 

[Destranator]

This nonsense needs to be stopped. All those going must get clearance from authorities that checks that they have paid taxes. No tax- No clearance.

BD also needs to place a punitive tax on medical tourist and channel tax receipts in to our public health infastructure.

BD also needs to introduce absolue quota on medical tourists that reduces every year to create the impetus for BD private sector and also foreign medical institutions to set up in BD itself.

BD should consider this an absolute policy and financial disaster.

I would love to see such restrictions being imposed but not before sorting out the quality of healthcare in BD. Our private healthcare providers are absolute leeches. They mistreat patients just to maximise billables.
Doctors over prescribe medication under the influence of pharma lobbyists with total disregard for side effects.
People then return to the doctors to deal with the side effects only to be prescribed a new bunch of medication.
Zero accountability.
We have to let people travel to India until we sort out this mess.

 

[Wergeland]

Mind boggling that fifth most popolous nation on earth still does not have good quality hospitals.

The demand is there but simply no one from government is doing anything to improve this situation. Just build those goddamn hospitals and get on hire Cuban and Indian doctors.

Obviously BD medical educational system is a farce. Hearing horror stories about «Doctors» with fake cetificates handing out disgnoses and medicine for several decades to patients. Some of these fake doctors and scoundrels even doing operations on patients.

 

[INS_Vikrant]

While we Kolkatans don't have guts to risk getting medical care here and get financially ruined without any proper treatment LOL. We mostly go to South India or Delhi, Mumbai.

I hope they are being guided properly. As long as I can remember, patients from Calcutta, Indians, have travelled to Christian Medical College, Vellore, for outstanding treatment, perhaps the best in the sub-continent.

CMC Vellore should literally consider having bengali as one of official language rofl, one third of patients there are usually from WB

Kolkata medical charges are quite a bit higher than that charged in say Chennai or other places in the South.

Its a complete scam

 

[ilish-in-wonderland]

it seems private healthcare is pretty expensive in Bangladesh. (for major illness)

 

[Black_cats]

This is ridiculous, to issue medical visas only to those arriving on flights. What is being implied?


I hope they are being guided properly. As long as I can remember, patients from Calcutta, Indians, have travelled to Christian Medical College, Vellore, for outstanding treatment, perhaps the best in the sub-continent.

Then come the famous clutch of hospitals in Chennai; the para around Apollo has the only tolerable Bengali food in Chennai!

What people may not know is that Bengaluru is challenging Chennai nowadays. However, with that maladministration in power, it is not a trip I can recommend at the moment; Indians, yes, foreigners, no.

I guess arrival by other means is open now beside air.

 

[Joe Shearer]

I guess arrival by other means is open now beside air.

You don't understand.

Of course there are other methods of travel besides air.

Both on the issuing side, and on the side of the kind of mindless retard we all saw brandishing a mike in the faces of peaceful people minding their own business, there is a link between those who have NOT arrived by air, and illegal entry. Every second person he accosted was asked if that person came on foot, through the wires. What do you think the creep was implying?

I hope those who had the strong stomach to actually watch the videos (I watched a few seconds of each) understood what it was about. That is a different discussion, but it is embedded in the Islamophobia that is now the worst-kept secret in the world.

 

[mb444]

I would love to see such restrictions being imposed but not before sorting out the quality of healthcare in BD. Our private healthcare providers are absolute leeches. They mistreat patients just to maximise billables.
Doctors over prescribe medication under the influence of pharma lobbyists with total disregard for side effects.
People then return to the doctors to deal with the side effects only to be prescribed a new bunch of medication.
Zero accountability.
We have to let people travel to India until we sort out this mess.

At the very minimum BD needs to ensure health tourist from BD are tax payers, no if or buts. In addition make purchasing of hard currency much much more difficult. These simple steps will lead to expansion of BD private health care.

GoB should see health tourism as an absolute negative and do something about it even though at an individual level it may lead to bad consequences but at a national level it will bring good dividends in the medium to long term.

 

[ilish-in-wonderland]

At the very minimum BD needs to ensure health tourist from BD are tax payers, no if or buts. In addition make purchasing of hard currency much much more difficult. These simple steps will lead to expansion of BD private health care.

GoB should see health tourism as an absolute negative and do something about it even though at an individual level it may lead to bad consequences but at a national level it will bring good dividends in the medium to long term.

Heathcare is a necessity (unlike say tourism) forcing people will only mean BD hospitals can get away with even higher price for their service. People who go to India are not rich, many are actually lower middle class who are forced to go to India.
its easy to say 'bad consequence' when you are covered by NHS.

 

[mb444]

Heathcare is a necessity (unlike say tourism) forcing people will only mean BD hospitals can get away with even higher price for their service. People who go to India are not rich, many are actually lower middle class who are forced to go to India.
its easy to say 'bad consequence' when you are covered by NHS.

Fair point regarding NHS but leaving situation as it will simply maintain status quo in BD which is not feasible in the longrun.

How much foreign reserves are being lost to BD? If people can pay to go to india they can also pay taxes.

Not at al unsympathetic to the short term catastrophic impact for individuals. I accept the criticism that personally I am in a privileged position and postulating remedy whose negative impact i wont be subjected too. But what else can be done. Simply speaking GoB does not collect enough funds to develop anything beyond a rudimentary health care system.

 

[Destranator]

At the very minimum BD needs to ensure health tourist from BD are tax payers, no if or buts. In addition make purchasing of hard currency much much more difficult. These simple steps will lead to expansion of BD private health care.

GoB should see health tourism as an absolute negative and do something about it even though at an individual level it may lead to bad consequences but at a national level it will bring good dividends in the medium to long term.

Until we fix our healthcare system, there are big if's and but's. Once it is fixed, I agree with you.