The government is committed to making India a global medical value hub by further strengthening the traditional medicine industry and boosting ‘Heal in India’ and ‘Heal by India’ initiatives, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya said today.
Addressing a roundtable conference with senior IFS officers on “Building Brand India” here, he noted that India, with its high-end healthcare ecosystem and world-class medical facilities, was drawing the attention of the whole world.
“Today, people from different countries of the world are coming to India for treatment in large numbers. With an aim to further boost medical tourism, the Government of India has launched the ‘Heal in India’ programme under the leadership of the Prime Minister. Similarly, we have started the ‘Heal by India’ programme. This will provide an opportunity for our medical workforce to travel all over the world and contribute towards a healthy global society,” the minister added.
Highlighting the need to take steps to further strengthen the medical value tourism, Mandaviya suggested establishing facilitation centres at the Indian embassies across the world for the people wanting to travel to India for treatment. In addition, a system to get feedback/testimonials from people who are getting treated in India can be instituted.
“This will help us in making medical tourism, ‘Brand India’. A ‘One Step’ portal is being made for the convenience and ease of credible information for those who want to take treatment in India from abroad,” he added.
Stressing the need to forge agreements with other countries in the medical sector, the minister noted that India has an agreement with Japan to provide skilled nurses. Such pacts have also been signed with other countries for skilled medical manpower.
Such possibilities should be further explored to promote medical value tourism. “In the last few years, medical value travel has gained a lot of popularity and India is now one of the fastest-growing medical tourism centres in Asia”, he added.
Highlighting the importance of the traditional system of medicines, Mandaviya noted that India has established itself as the focal point of AYUSH.