There is a need for a liberal visa policy for overseas patients coming to hospitals in India in order to encourage the medical tourism sector, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Joint Managing Director Sangita Reddy said on Friday.
The healthcare major intends to work closely with the government’s ‘Heal in India’ initiative to encourage the inflow of patients into the country, she stated.
“So our idea is to work with the government of India and really evolve this plan called Heal in India. We need enhanced E visas,” Reddy told reporters here.
Some of the neighbouring countries like Thailand, Turkey, Philippines, and Singapore, which get a large number of patients, have visas on arrival, and they have a visa facility for many countries, she added.
“We are requesting the government to enhance the ease of patients coming in, to speed in, and make the medical tourism visas faster, to promote the concept, because India has high-quality healthcare at one-tenth of global prices,” Reddy said.
Elaborating further, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Executive Vice Chairperson Preetha Reddy said that the government is now looking at medical tourism very seriously.
“We need to make the visa process better. We need to make the landing experience better. Now we have fabulous airports in a lot of cities, so that’s kind of done,” she noted.
Asked about future growth plans, she noted that the healthcare provider is collaborating with multiple entities across multiple fields.
“So in the digital space, yes, in the learning space, yes, and definitely in the hospital space, you know, you will see more collaborations and lot of scientific collaborations,” Reddy said.
The company is working with the IITs and other institutions to incubate innovations., she said.
“So I think collaboration now is the only way ahead for healthcare providers, and we’re doing it in multiple formats,” she said.
Reddy noted that Apollo Hospitals has already announced to add around 3,000 beds across its hospital network over the next five years.
The healthcare has announced plans to invest close to Rs 6,000 crore for the expansion. PTI