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Bangladesh health tourism back on its feet in Kolkata

This nonsense needs to be stopped. All those going must get clearance from authorities that checks that they have paid taxes. No tax- No clearance.

BD also needs to place a punitive tax on medical tourist and channel tax receipts in to our public health infastructure.

BD also needs to introduce absolue quota on medical tourists that reduces every year to create the impetus for BD private sector and also foreign medical institutions to set up in BD itself.

BD should consider this an absolute policy and financial disaster.

Only in the healthcare sector I believe we should encourage fair competition in the region.

With people's lives at stake, I would not like to put unnecessary impediments in the way.

Secondly, without competition our hospitals will not improve.

The problem of cash outflow will remedy itself automatically - no sick person wants to pay extra for flights and hotel if they can get decent healthcare locally. Local hospitals are losing customers so will fill the gap eventually.
 
While we Kolkatans don't have guts to risk getting medical care here and get financially ruined without any proper treatment LOL. We mostly go to South India or Delhi, Mumbai.



CMC Vellore should literally consider having bengali as one of official language rofl, one third of patients there are usually from WB



Its a complete scam

The demand for CMC Vellore medical tourism alone has caused starts for some direct flights from Dhaka to Chennai. There are WB patients there I am sure, but they get more than their fair share of patients from Bangladesh, who probably pay much higher rates compared to Indian citizens.

The reason is that CMC Vellore (though being a govt. hospital) has excellent standards and reputations of providing successful super specialized medical care.

From a post in Quora (which is most probably factual - I have no reason to doubt the statements):

"CMC Vellore has brought many significant achievements to India, including starting the first College of Nursing in 1946, performing the first reconstructive surgery for leprosy in the world (1948), performing the first successful open heart surgery in India (1961), performing the first kidney transplant in ... AIIMS Delhi retains top spot while the top three medical colleges for the year 2020, remains the same as last year with Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh and Christian Medical College, Vellore (CMC Vellore) in second and third place respectively."

Following airlines already have daily flights from DAC-MAA (Dhaka-Chennai) - others are starting soon. It is almost a three hour leg.
  • IndiGo Airlines
  • US-Bangla Airlines
There are several super-specialized private and govt. hospitals being built in Dhaka and almost finished (three large ones that I know of personally), so this situation may soon be remedied.
 
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Here is a post in Quora:

Why do so many people from west bengal came all the way at vellore (C.M.C) for treatment?
Originally Answered: why do so many people from West Bengal came all the way at vellore (C.M.C) for treatment?

For a long time, Calcutta and by extension West Bengal, seriously lacked super specialty hospitals that is essential for modern living. The only hospitals of repute, other than the government hospitals of Calcutta Medical College, SSKM, R G Kar etc. was the private Calcutta Hospital, setup by the Birlas. Other than these, there were the two nursing homes of repute, Woodlands and Belle View.

Therefore for serious surgeries and sophisticated tests like MRI scans etc. Calcuttans went to Vellore. Other than being economical, the connection to Vellore was easier as it is a 2 hrs road trip from Chennai. Calcutta to Chennai has 2 good trains - Madras Express and Coromandel Express.

Over a period of time, Vellore established itself in the minds of the citizens of Calcutta as a dependable place. People always preferred CMC for Heart / brain related surgeries and slowly these became a norm as word of mouth spread. Doctors too recommended Vellore for such complicated cases.

There may be another reason. Even though specialty hospitals and other nursing homes have set shop in Calcutta in the last 10 years, the quality of nursing continues to remain problematic. CMC by being a missionary hospital attracts a lot of Malayali nurses, who, on all accounts, make the best of nurses (they are a big demand in the Middle East and the West).

Apollo in Chennai have also established itself now as a dependable destination not only for people from Calcutta but also from Bangladesh. So much so that, touts demand a lump sum payment including doctor's and hospital fees, along with accommodation facilities.
 
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Last industrial meet West Bengal has got 15000 crores INR of investment proposal which will be materialized in 3 years. Another 10000 crores INR in 5 years.

Apollo is building their biggest, most mordern medical facility.
Mt Elizabeth singapore hospital is reviewing to setup a unit. No proposal from them yet.

No idea why these hospitals are investing so much in Kolkata.
 
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