INDIA VS UK

Significant cost differences exist between U.K. and India when it comes to medical treatment. Accompanied with the cost are waiting times which exist in U.K. for patients which range from 3 months to over 12 months.

India is not only cheaper but the waiting time is almost nil. This is due to the outburst of the private sector which comprises of hospitals and clinics with the latest technology and best practitioners.

Nature of Treatment	Treatment Approximate Cost in India ($) *	Cost in other Major Healthcare Destination ($) *	Approximate Waiting Periods in USA / UK (in months)
Open heart Surgery	4,500	> 18,000	9 - 11
Cranio-facial Surgery and skull base	4,300	> 13,000	6 - 8
Neuro-surgery with Hypothermia	6,500	> 21,000	12 - 14
Complex spine surgery with implants	4,300	> 13,000	9 - 11
Simple Spine surgery	2,100	> 6,500	9 - 11
Simple Brain Tumor  -Biopsy  -Surgery	1,000  4,300	> 4,300 > 10,000	6 - 8
Parkinsons  -Lesion -DBS	2,100  17,000	> 6,500 > 26,000	9 - 11
Hip Replacement	4,300	> 13,000	9 - 11

* These costs are an average and may not be the actual cost to be incurred.

An article from 'The Guardian' dtd Feb 1, 2005

This UK patient avoided the NHS list and flew to India for a heart bypass. Is health tourism the future? Three months ago George Marshall fretted about the choice offered by his doctor in Britain. Diagnosed with coronary heart disease, the violin repairer from Bradford was told he could either wait up to six months for a heart bypass operation on the National Health Service or pay £19,000 to go under the scalpel immediately.

In the end, Mr Marshall chose to outsource his operation to India. Last month he flew 5,000 miles to the southern Indian city of Bangalore where surgeons at the Wockhardt hospital and heart institute took a piece of vein from his arm to repair the thinning arteries of his heart. The cost was $4,800, including the flight.

"Everyone's been really great here. I have been in the NHS and gone private in Britain in the past, but I can say that the care and facilities in India are easily comparable," says Mr Marshall, sitting in hospital-blue pyjamas. "I'd have no problem coming again."

The 73-year-old found the hospital in Bangalore after a few hours surfing the internet. Mr Marshall decided to come after an email conversation with Wockhardt's vice-president and a chat with other "medical tourists" from Britain who had undergone surgery in the hospital.
"Once I knew others had come I thought, why not? In Europe hospitals in Germany and Belgium would do the operation for less than doctors in Britain. But Europe was still more expensive than here. And the staff speak English in India."

With patients such as Mr Marshall willing to travel across the globe to get treatment sooner or more cheaply than they could at home, Indian hospital groups see a huge market for their services.

INDIA VS USA
PROCEDURE CHARGES IN INDIA & US (US $):

Procedure	Cost (US$)
	United States	India
Bone Marrow Transplant	2,50,000	69,000
Liver Transplant	3,00,000	69,000
Heart Surgery	30,000	8,000
Orthopedic Surgery	20,000	6,000
Cataract Surgery	2,000	1,250

Here's a brief comparison of the cost of few of the Dental treatment procedures between USA and India

Dental procedure	Cost in US ($)*		Cost in India ($)*
	General Dentist	Top End Dentist	Top End Dentist
Smile designing	-	8,000	1,000
Metal Free Bridge	-	5,500	500
Dental Implants	-	3,500	800
Porcelain Metal Bridge	1,800	3,000	300
Porcelain Metal Crown	600	1,000	80
Tooth impactions	500	2,000	100
Root canal Treatment	600	1,000	100
Tooth whitening	350	800	110
Tooth colored composite fillings	200	500	25
Tooth cleaning	100	300	75

* These costs are an average and may not be the actual cost to be incurred. An article from 'Hindustan Times' dtd Feb 16, 2005

Americans flock to India for treatment
Robert Walter Beeney was unable to walk due to a stiff hip when he landed in India January 24. Twenty days later, he not only recovered after a rare hip replacement surgery at Apollo Hospital here but also visited the famous Taj Mahal in Agra after that.

The 64-year-old real estate consultant from San Francisco underwent successful surface replacement surgery using the anatomic surface replacement (ASR) hip system January 27, reportedly becoming the first US national to come to India for the treatment.

Another patient from Florida will be landing in Chennai for a similar procedure at the Apollo Hospital there later this week.
A team of doctors, led by orthopaedic surgeon Vijay Bose, carried out the procedure for Beeney.

Jayaramchander Pingle, a member of the medical team, told a news conference on Tuesday that while in the conventional hip replacement surgery, the total hip was replaced, in the new system, the patient's original head and neck of femur were preserved and only their surface is replaced with metal on metal articulation.

With the use of very advanced metallurgy in this device, the wear and tear is reduced to a fraction in the artificial joint as opposed to the conventional total hip replacement.

Another advantage of the latest procedure is that in the event of any problem that may occur in the long term, the conventional total hip replacement can be done at a later stage.

Beeney, who came to know about the procedure in India through the Internet, said that since this was not yet cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration, he decided to come to India.

"This is despite the fact that the device that is fixed in the hip is made in the US," he said.
He also had other options like going to Britain or Belgium for treatment. "But I preferred India as the treatment costs there are huge," he said.
The treatment in India cost him $6,600 (Rs 300,000) while the same as a part of clinical trial in US would have cost $24,000. Even in Britain, where this procedure was first developed a few years ago, it would have cost 12,000 pounds.

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