It’s fascinating how much our healthcare is changing, not just in the lab, but in terms of where we actually receive it.
Take Medical Tourism, for example. It’s the rise of people hopping on a plane to get a major surgery, dental work, or a fertility treatment in another country, often driven by the promise of dramatic cost savings or quicker access to specialized care that isn’t available at home.
For many, this is a genuine godsend, it makes life-changing procedures financially possible. But from a global health perspective, it’s a tricky business. While many destination hospitals offer world-class care, the lack of consistent international regulation means you’re stepping into a massive risk zone. If something goes wrong, a complication, an infection, or a need for follow-up care, you can be left stranded with limited legal recourse once you fly home.
It forces us to balance personal financial necessity against the very real risks of fragmented, unregulated, cross-border care.
Medical tourism really highlights the global inequalities in healthcare where affordability and access push people to look abroad. While it can open doors to treatment that might otherwise be out of reach, the gaps in regulation, follow-up care and accountability are lacking. It is really important to balance both the things.
Dental treatments in countries like UK and Canada are very expensive. So people are coming to India for dental corrections. To remove a few teeth in Canada, they demanded 3 lakh rupees. So one of my relatives came to India, where it is very cheap, an airfare of 1 lakh to and fro and can meet all the relatives at one go. If we improve our medical facilities to a world-class level, medical tourism can surely add to our revenue.
Absolutely — medical tourism opens incredible opportunities for accessible care and life-changing treatments, and raising awareness about the risks helps patients make safer, more informed decisions!
The health care facility is good in India. In many foreign countries, there is a waiting period for attaining the proper treatment, unless it is an emergency. Moreover, the cost of treatment is high, especially dental treatment. Thus, medical journalism can bring both job opportunities and boost India’s economy.