Cosmetic Surgeon gets ‘Award of Excellence’ in Medical Tourism
- Tuesday, August 2, 2011, 8:06
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Dr K M Kapoor, Senior Consultant, Department of Cosmetic Surgery at Fortis Hospital, Mohali, has been awarded ‘Award of excellence’ in the field of Innovative Medial Tourism by Union Minister of Tourism Shri Subodh Kant Sahay recently. Shri Sahay was inaugurating the North India Cinematic Tourism Conclave at Chandigarh, organized by the Department of Tourism, Chandigarh Administration & NIMA.
Dr Kapoor has been at the forefront of introducing the concept of Medical tourism in Chandigarh and making Chandigarh a popular destination for various types of Cosmetic surgeries. Dr Kapoor has successfully treated patients from many countries like USA, Canada, UK, Italy, Spain, Australia, NZ, Kuwait etc. He has also been instrumental in starting the concept of Medispa in Chandigarh by starting ‘Anticlock Medispa’ last year.
Medical tourism is one of the fastest growing areas of tourism. CII-Mckinsey study on medical tourism showed that the share of India was about 333 million dollars in 2004, but it was growing at 30 % and it could fetch as much as $2 billion by 2012.Cosmetic Surgery started as the growth engine in first phase of medical tourism as Cosmetic surgery is not covered under insurance and patients have to pay charges themselves. In year 2008, for cosmetic surgery procedures like Breast augmentation, tummy tuck, liposuction and facelift , around 14,500 patients travelled outside the UK, spending around £3,500 each, creating an estimated market worth £50 million(cosmetic surgery getting 31% of total market share).
Speaking on this occasion, Shri Sahay emphasized that tourism as an economic activity should be taken at all available platforms so as to tap its huge potential to generate employment and to reap its financial and social benefits to the country.
Regarding growing medical tourism in India, Dr Kapoor said “Three major factors of growth of medical tourism are Cost, Quality and Availability. Cost is a major driver of medical tourism as cost of medical treatment is 1/4th to 1/5th compared to USA and UK. For example cost of a Facelift in USA is about $15,000 while same surgery costs $ 3000 in India. With the growth of corporate hospitals in India, there is easy access to state of the art facilities and technology and no waiting period before elective surgery is a crucial factor in the growth of medial tourism in India.”
Dr Kapoor further said, “For the promotion of the medical tourism in India, we need to develop a sustainable, effective, intensive plan with best possible marketing strategies. There is also a need to design the strategy to strengthen the links with NRI community in an organized fashion to promote the medical tourism business in north India.”
