The uncertainty of the coronavirus, lockdowns, and border restrictions has proved fatal for millions of international patients who choose Asian countries for their medical treatments. But as many countries fear the resurgence of COVID-19, despite anticipating significant revenue loss they are still jittery about re-opening to patients from overseas.
By Deepika Khurana
Kambili Abdullahi, a patient from Nigeria who was scheduled to come to India’s Gurugram-based Artemis Hospital for his tumor removal procedure in April is at a crossroads.
Travel restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus outbreak have not only delayed his cancer treatment, but it has also proved to be emotionally challenging for Abdullahi and his family as they desperately waited to see him lead a normal life, post-treatment.
When Health Analytics Asia reached out to Abdullahi, the 56-year-old gave a terse reply, “I am broken.”
Certainly, Abdullahi is one among millions of such overseas patients who couldn’t travel abroad to seek or complete his medical treatment amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
“There have been many heart-wrenching stories where the patients were set to fly to India in March 2020 and had to suddenly cancel their travel plans. Some were even sent back halfway from Dubai as the Indian borders were suddenly closed,” said Pradeep Thukral, CEO of medical tourism firm SafeMedTrip Assistance India.
He further reveals that owing to sudden lockdown, these international patients were being helped through telemedicine to medically manage their treatment with the assistance of their doctors.
“But a large number of patients who needed surgery or treatment that’s not available in their home country are the ones who had to really suffer,” said Thukral.
Considered among the top 3 destinations for medical treatments in Asia, India witnessed a footfall of 6.97 lakh foreign patients on a medical visa in 2019. This accounts for 6.9 percent of total foreign tourist arrivals, as was revealed by the Tourism Ministry of India.
Similarly, Malaysia reported a footfall of one million medical tourists and Thailand witnessed 3.3 million overseas patients, in 2017.
But with COVID-19 creating global havoc, some countries took drastic measures, including border closures and shutting down airports. As a result, all tourist visas including those of patients scheduled for their medical treatments were suspended with the immediate effect.
“I feel unbearably sad when I put myself in the place of some of my patients who have already gone through the unimaginable because of the lack of timely treatment,” said Dr. Satnam Singh Chhabra, Chairman of Department of Neurosurgery at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi.
Foreign patients visit India not just for specialised treatments and surgeries but for routine check-ups as well. But since March till August-end, patients were completely barred from entering the country for their medical needs.
“There were hundreds of international patients who were scheduled to come for various treatments – with expectations of a glorious spring; patients whose tumors have just returned or who now face difficult choices because now there’s restricted travel in the face of adversity,” added Dr. Chabbra.
Across Asia, it’s a similar story. Malaysia, for instance, had big plans for its medical tourism industry in 2020—only for the pandemic to hit.
The country that witnesses sizable medical patients from Indonesia apart from the Middle East, Europe, UK, Australia, and the US came to a grinding halt in March when the Malaysian government instigated a lockdown to curb the growing number of COVID-19 infections.
The common treatments for which patients often fly to Malaysia are in orthopaedics, cardiology, IVF, neurology, and oncology, according to the Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC), and affordable cosmetic surgery is a further draw.
Even countries like Thailand, which reopened their international borders for the foreign medical patients in July, but with stricter measures and a mandatory negative COVID test as a pre-travel condition are likely to see a downfall. In fact, at Bumrungrad International Hospital in Thailand, where half of the patients come from overseas, experts are predicting a 28% drop in revenues by the end of 2020, as reported by Bangkok Post.
If overseas patients don’t know when they’ll be able to resume or seek medical treatments abroad, hospitals and wellness centres, especially the ones who get the major chunk of their revenue from international patients are unsure about their survival, especially if things don’t get better anytime soon.
“With all tourist visas suspended and international flights incrementally operational, the overseas patient inflow has stopped and elective surgeries are postponed as a precautionary measure. So obviously, our revenue has also proportionally come down,” said a spokesperson from the Fortis Healthcare Ltd. The hospital chain witnesses its foreign influx from countries such as Iraq, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Nigeria, Sudan, Mauritius, Kenya, and Cambodia.
In addition, he added, “since the pandemic started, costs for our hospital units have gone up tremendously – be it about creating isolation and quarantine wards, testing protocols, management of staff on the rotational basis, stocking PPE kits, disinfectants, making arrangement of lodging, boarding, and transport of our frontline healthcare workers or several other such factors.”
Even Max Healthcare — that includes BLK hospitals, has reportedly pegged its monthly revenue loss of Rs 40 crores per month — in the absence of international patients.
Uncertain future for the medical tourism industry
The medical tourism operators are feeling the pinch too.
“For almost six months till the end of August 2020, practically no patient could come to India. Our estimate is that India has already lost at least two billion dollars in terms of medical tourism revenues to hospitals as well as wellness centres during this period,” said Thukral.
And now with many countries gradually opening up its skies, private hospitals in some Asian countries have restarted admitting emergency cases from abroad.
“Even though the patient flow resumed last month in India, it’s down by almost 80 percent as compared to the last year,” he informed.
But despite this disruption, hospitals maintain a positive outlook with respect to the medical tourism industry. “With 18% CAGR (compound annual growth rate), India is ahead of many popular destinations, i.e., Turkey (12%), Singapore (15%), and Malaysia (16%),” said the spokesperson from the Fortis Healthcare Ltd.
According to him, Asian countries will always be in demand as they have the prerequisites to deliver the best of healthcare services, i.e., internationally acclaimed doctors, world-class equipment, the latest techniques, and all at a reasonable cost.
However, with many countries fearing resurgences of COVID-19, their health authorities are still nervous about re-opening to patients from overseas.
For now, it’s still a hazy future for Kambili Abdullahi and millions of patients like him who have no choice but to stay strong and hope that they will survive in the post COVID world.
The post How international patients suffer amid COVID-19 restrictions and travel breakdown appeared first on Health Analytics Asia.
