FAQs- Frequently Asked Questions | Medical Tourism in India

Medical Tourism in India

We understand that you have many questions to be answered before you embark on your journey for medical tourism in India. It is also very important that you thoroughly understand and get acquainted with the nuances of medical tourism and what facilities in India are made available to you as a medical tourist.

Some of the very popular questions asked by our clients include considering India as their medical tourism destination are:

What is medical tourism all about?
Why go for medical tourism in India?
How good are medical facilities in India?
How should I plan my medical travel to India?
How much does heart surgery cost in India?
Which place in India is good for kidney transplant surgery?
Which are the best medical tourism hospitals in India,
and many more.

We have tried to list down all such frequently asked questions (FAQs) by our clients for medical tourism in India. However, we would be more than happy to answer all your queries and doubts that you may have before you embark on your medical travel journey.

What is Medical Tourism?

Medical tourism is the phenomenon of people traveling abroad for medical treatment. The reasons for medical travel could be many- the high cost of treatment in the home country, lack of medical facilities or good surgeons in homeland or to maintain confidentiality like in the case of aesthetic cosmetic surgery. Medical travel has existed since Ancient Greece, but with advancements in technology, ease of communication, and travel, it has become a global phenomenon these days.

Why Go for Medical Tourism in India?

India is among the most popular medical tourism destinations in the world because of the many advantages the country offers and thus medical tourism in India has now become a multi-billion industry. Medical tourism statistics in India are a testimony to this fact. Every year more than 150,000 Americans alone visit India for affordable treatment.

Here are a few of the reasons why:

Excellent Medical Services: India is a destination that combines world-class medical services with low costs, saving around 60-80% as compared to private healthcare in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand - truly first-world infrastructure in selected private medical facilities.

Highly trained medical personnel: Availability of internationally certified surgeons and medical specialists, well known for their skills and professional expertise the world over.

Ease of Communication: English is widely spoken/ understood by medical staff and people at large so it is easy to get around therefore, international patients do not face any language barriers in India.

Vibrant Culture and Tourist Destination: India is a vibrant and the largest democratic country with a stable political environment and is known for its diverse culture, booming economy, and rich history - a must-see destination from a tourist's point of view.

What procedures are most popular for Medical Tourism in India?

Plastic or Cosmetic surgery
- Breast Reduction and Lifts: These procedures are popular among those looking to reduce the size and improve the shape of their breasts, offering both aesthetic and functional benefits.
- Facelifts: A highly sought-after procedure aimed at reducing the visible signs of aging by tightening and lifting the facial skin.
- Tummy Tuck: Also known as abdominoplasty, this procedure is popular for removing excess skin and fat from the abdomen and tightening the abdominal muscles.
- Many of our clients choose to combine these higher-cost procedures to achieve comprehensive results and save on overall costs.
Weight loss/ Bariatric Surgery
- Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy: This is the most popular bariatric surgery we offer, involving the removal of a portion of the stomach to reduce its size and limit food intake.
- Gastric Bypass: A common procedure that creates a small pouch from the stomach and connects it directly to the small intestine.
- Mini Gastric Bypass: Similar to the traditional gastric bypass but simpler and quicker, offering effective weight loss results.
- Intra Gastric Ballooning: A non-surgical procedure where a balloon is placed in the stomach to create a feeling of fullness and reduce food intake.
Cosmetic Dentistry
- Crowns and Implants: Our cosmetic dentistry services are designed to improve the appearance and functionality of your teeth with high-quality crowns and implants.
Orthopedic Surgery
- Knee Replacement: This procedure involves replacing a damaged knee joint with a prosthetic one to relieve pain and restore function.
- Hip Replacement: Similar to knee replacement, this procedure involves replacing a damaged hip joint with a prosthetic implant.
- Other Orthopedic Surgeries: We offer a range of other orthopedic procedures to address various joint and bone issues.
Cardiac Surgery
- Heart Bypass: Also known as coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), this surgery improves blood flow to the heart.
- Valve Replacement: This procedure replaces damaged heart valves to ensure proper blood flow through the heart.
- Pacemaker Implant: A pacemaker is implanted to help control abnormal heart rhythms.
Brain Surgery
- Gamma Knife: A precise form of radiation therapy used to treat brain tumors, arteriovenous malformations, and other brain disorders.
- Other Brain Procedures: We offer a range of advanced brain surgeries to address various neurological conditions.
Spine surgery
- Minimally Invasive Spine Surgeries: These procedures involve smaller incisions and quicker recovery times compared to traditional spine surgeries.
- Laminectomies and Spinal Decompressions: These surgeries relieve pressure on the spinal cord and nerves by removing part of the vertebra.
- Cervical Discectomy: This procedure involves removing a damaged disc in the neck to relieve pain and improve function.
Cancer treatments
- Radiotherapy: We use high-energy radiation to target and destroy cancer cells.
- Proton Therapy: A precise form of radiation therapy that uses protons instead of X-rays to treat cancer.
- Nuclear Medicine Treatments: These treatments involve the use of radioactive substances to diagnose and treat cancer.

Medical tourism is the phenomenon of people travelling abroad for medical treatment. The reasons for medical travel could be many- high cost of treatment in home country, lack of medical facilities or good surgeons in home land or to maintain confidentiality like in case of cosmetic surgery. Medical travel has been there since Ancient Greece, but with advancements in technology, ease of communication and travel, it has become a global phenomenon.

FAQs - Medical Tourism in India

IndiCure Health Tours chooses to partner with and offers operations and procedures at only selected few hospitals in India. The various parameters that guide our choice of partners to ensure the quality of services are as follows:

Medical facility is certified in line with industry standards, fully equipped ICU facilities, and 24-hour nursing.
Procedures are all done in fully equipped operating rooms with the necessary qualified staff and equipment
Patients are kept in hospitals for a minimum of 24 hours after the operation, extension of the stay period depending upon the procedure performed.
The medical facility has a dedicated cell for managing international patients.

All the hospitals that we deal with are either JCI accredited, which means the infrastructure and quality of care are at par with US standards, or have ISO, NABH, or reputed Indian accreditations. You can thus be assured that the hospitals you opt for while choosing medical tourism in India with IndiCure Health Tours offer good services.

The quality of the surgeons' skills and care services that our select hospitals offer in India are amongst the very best in the world. In effect, a medical tourist to India can expect high quality surgery, but at much more affordable prices.

The fact that pricing of healthcare services is so competitive in India is because of largely two reasons:

Low cost of endowment in India - Qualified doctors, surgeons, nursing staff, lower investment costs, and subsidies by the government to the private healthcare sector are more as compared to other countries

Favorable Exchange Rate - We have an exchange rate regime, which is favorable to India as compared to any western country, which makes it much cheaper for a westerner to have surgery in India (Below are indicative exchange rates that may not be currently applicable)

1 USD = 83.48 Indian rupees
1 GBP = 106.89 Indian rupees
1 Euro = 93.33 Indian rupees

IndiCure Health Tours offers end to end assistance during your medical trip to India. We not only chose and recommend best surgeons and top hospitals in India, but also help you throughout your surgery and stay in India.

We strongly urge our patient guests to ask all the questions that concern them most and only make the final decision once they are satisfied with the answers.

We at IndiCure extend patient ears to what you say and do our best to give you an unbiased opinion and always try to provide you with all the relevant information to the best of our knowledge and experience. We urge you to openly communicate with previous clients to make an informed choice.

IndiCure Health Tours offers a complete set of medical, stay and travel facilities for its patient guests. We help them with pre-operation consultations, admissions, transportation after discharge, hotel bookings etc to make it a seamless experience for our guests,

IndiCure is always ready to offer any technical or psychological support for its clients since it is a vulnerable time for them as they are away from home.

Post-operation, we are always available for any other services, consultations, and feedback about the experience at the medical facility and/or the surgeon, and assure you that they will be addressed as soon as possible. We are there to make sure that your medical travel to India is completely safe and hassle-free.

IndiCure Health Tours has its best surgeons and top hospitals in Mumbai and New Delhi / Gurugram. These cities are the biggest cities of India and boast of being the medical tourism hubs in India. We also collaborate with some select surgeons and hospitals in Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

We restrict our partner surgeons and hospitals to bigger cities in India since these have better infrastructure and ecosystem for healthcare services, though at comparatively higher prices.

Most of our medical tourism patient guests comes from the Western and African countries. Among western countries, we welcome increasing number of patients from USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Among African countries, we welcome our patient guests from Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa etc.

IndiCure Health Tours chooses to collaborate only with eminent medical experts in their respective fields to ensure the safety of our international patient guests. We only associate with surgeons who:

Are qualified, certified, and registered specialists
Are registered with the Indian Medical Council or a member of a specialist association - thus, adhering to the ethical codes of conduct as put forward by the council/ association
Do not have any legal cases of malpractice against them
Run private practices
Are covered by medical insurance in India
Have positive feedback from the past patients

After the surgery in India, you will be at the hospital, under the nursing care as appropriate to your surgical procedure. You will be in the hospital for a minimum of 24 hours after the operation (for most in-patient surgeries) and this may be extended depending on the procedure performed.

We will transfer you to a recuperation accommodation facility, which on your choice can be a serviced apartment with full facilities in a truly home environment, or a star-rated hotel of choice. We call or visit you daily during your stay ensuring that all your personal and post-operative needs are addressed.

We will transfer you for your post-operative consultations with the surgeon.

The cost savings for medical procedures abroad can vary greatly depending on the specific treatment you choose. Generally, you can expect to pay significantly less, often between 50% and 90% compared to prices in Western countries like the USA, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. These substantial reductions can even allow you to factor in travel expenses like flights, comfortable recovery in a nice hotel, and even some souvenirs, all while still saving money overall.

You will be required to stay in India after the surgery for an appropriate period depending on the recuperative procedure, thus ensuring that you are on the correct healing path.
Once you are back in your home country and have something to consult with your treating surgeon, we will arrange for a mutually convenient time for a virtual consultation.
We urge you to keep in touch with IndiCure once back home, as your continued healing process is important to us. We use email as effective feedback and follow-up system.

IndiCure Health Tours is utmost selective in choosing partner surgeons and medical facilities to make sure that chances of complications are minimized in the first place.

We are always a call or an e-mail away from you for any communication. With our access to medical and support facilities, we will try to mobilize the required resources/ facilities to alleviate your concerns to the best of our abilities. Thus, we vow to be your 'professional friend' as well, in a city away from home, helping you navigate India and Indian healthcare system. We encourage you to ask as many questions to the treating surgeon, to identify the risks involved with the procedures, and make an informed choice thereafter.

Our partner hospitals ensure that patients are kept in hospitals for a minimum of 24 hours post the operation (for most of in-patient surgeries), as 24 hours is the time when medical complications can occur.

We also recommend you to stay in the city of surgery for a minimum period as suggested by the surgeon ensuring that you have adequate postoperative consultation with the surgeon.

Elective surgery or any possible medical complication arising from having an elective procedure is not covered by any of the insurers worldwide.
For other medical procedures, we advise you to get authorization from your medical insurance provider before traveling to India - we will be glad to forward you the medical codes or any other necessary documents.
We do advise you to avail regular comprehensive travel insurance while buying your ticket to India.
We only use surgeons who have adequate medical insurance and the necessary malpractice coverage in order to operate on our overseas clients and medical tourists from around the world

The medical facilities that IndiCure Health Tours associates with follow strict international guidelines and test the samples as There are additional precautions for HIV/AIDS patients in place as per protocols that ensure safety of patients.
Moreover, Indian blood donors are not paid to donate their blood and it is only a voluntary activity.

When you choose IndiCure Health Tours, we offer to service you right from the point you make an enquiry until you are back home and even thereafter.

We will plan your surgery and prepare a detailed itinerary including your appointments for the surgery (pre-operative and post-operative) and your stay or trips in India.

We will handle your bookings, arrange for your first “face-to-face” consultation, coordinate your subsequent schedule of appointments, and take care of most of your errands and concierge services as part of facilitation services of your medical trip to India.

Once back home, we encourage you to keep in touch with us, as your healing progress is important, and if at any stage you have any queries, we would like you to contact us, and we will respond accordingly.

Medical Visa

You would need a valid medical visa to enter India for surgery or other medical reasons, which can be obtained at the Indian embassy in your country. You can either obtain a tourist or medical visa to enter India. The Indian government has also started the facility of visas upon arrival for citizens of a few countries. You can check if you are eligible for a visa on arrival by visiting the website e-Tourist Visa.
A medical visa can be obtained by producing a letter from the treating doctor or the hospital stating the purpose of your visit.

Indian Weather

India is a big country and different parts of the country experience different weather and temperature in different seasons. While North India has extreme temperatures, West and South India is temperate. You need to know which part of the country you are visiting and what type of weather and temperatures to expect during that time. Your case manager will help you with that.

Preferred Attire

India is a traditionally conservative society. Women are advised to opt for long skirts or pants, while avoiding miniskirts and shorts, to ensure respectful and appropriate attire.

Indian Food

Indian food is quite different from the rest of the world. Not only does it taste very different, but it is cooked differently. The taste and smell of the food varies in different parts of the country and is as different as its culture. The only thing common in food across different parts is its spiciness. Whether it is a North Indian dish or a South India cuisine, spices are used generously. It is worthwhile to note that all the spices used have some or the other nutritional or medicinal properties.

Money and Costs

India is quite inexpensive compared to the Western countries and has a greatly favourable exchange rate. India is a paradise for shoppers. One gets a platter of options right from old bustling bazaars to sprawling shopping malls. The most popular items among visitors are antiques, handicrafts, leather articles, rugs and carpets, linen and fabrics, silk, and jewelry. It is easy to exchange money and credit cards are accepted in most places.

Let Us Get in Touch...

Which Doctor/Hospital shall we suggest for you?

When are you coming to India for the procedure?

Do you have a preferred City or Hospital?

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