Scope of the Medical Tourism Facility in Ahmedabad

Abstract

Rationale: Indians in general have started taking much more care of their health than before they were used to. Especially the Non Residential Indians (NRIs) living in different countries of the globe visit India and specifically Gujarat for treatment because some of the treatments are very much cheaper in Gujarat than other developed countries. Apart from medical facility the Medical Tourism service provides packages which include the facilities starting from the patient enter in Gujarat till he goes back to his respective country resulting no patient need to worry about residential, food, transportation from hotel to hospital and from airport to hotel. The present study is focused to find out the preference, intention and scope of the Medical Tourism Facility in Ahmedabad City.

Purpose: The number of NRI Patients has increased gradually for the availment of Medical Tourism (MT) facility in Gujarat region, so there is a need to understand the factors of preferences and intentions for availing facility and adding to that the scope of particular facility in future to make Gujarat as Medical tourism destination.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The data is collected through self administered questionnaire from Doctors and NRI patients who have availed the Services. The sample size for the study is 120 patients and 30 doctors as respondents. Analysis has been done by using Frequency Analysis, Cross-Tabulation, Pie-chart followed by Chi-Square test.

Findings: A study suggested that generally patient‟s preferences and intentions depend upon the factors like cost constraint, destination for leisure activities, family concern, expertise of doctors and brand name. Mostly patients come from US and UK for availing MT facilities in Gujarat. As per the data available every year more than 1200 patients come in Gujarat for MT and approximate increment in that is 2% roughly. The average cost is 60% lesser in Ahmedabad than other countries so considering that scope of MT is very good and emerging.

Research Limitations/Implications: A key limitation of the study is sampling frame & size. The study is conducted to find scope in Ahmedabad city only; it can be replicated by considering other regions and hospitals.

Keywords: Medical Tourism, Global Health-Care, NRIs, Dental and Surgical Care, Leisure Activities