Kolkata: A sizable proportion of ‘medical tourists’ from Bangladesh to Kolkata may now be giving the city a miss in favour of Southeast Asian countries, owing to travel disruptions because of the unstable situation in the neighbouring country, say private hospitals in the city.
The fear is not unfounded: in the last fortnight, several of Kolkata’s private hospitals have seen the Bangladeshi patient inflow reduce to a trickle, even by 80% to 90%.
It’s a revenue loss of 10%-15% on average for eight-10 hospitals that normally get around 10,000 Bangladeshi patients each per month.
Rupak Barua, president, Association of Hospitals of Eastern India, said this could be a “permanent setback” to Kolkata’s healthcare sector.
“Around 1.2 lakh Bangladeshi patients visit India each year,” said Barua, who’s also CEO of Woodlands Hospital. “More than 80% of them used to visit Kolkata till Sept. This figure is now a few hundred. Many of them have moved to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore. More will move away from Kolkata if the disruptions persist,” he added.
‘Loss of patients could be temporary’
Rupak Barua, president of the Association of Hospitals of Eastern India and the CEO of Woodlands Hospital, said around 800-1,000 medical visas used to be issued to Bangladeshi patients each day till Aug. The figure was just 800 for the whole of Sept.
At RN Tagore Hospital, a unit of the Narayana Hospitals, there used to be around 250 Bangladeshi patients in OPD per day till about eight months ago. It has now come down to fewer than 80 a day, said R Venkatesh, Narayana Hospitals COO.
“We used to have around 10 admissions per day. This has come down to around three now,” Venkatesh said.
The deteriorating relationship between India and Bangladesh may have affected the healthcare sector in Kolkata irreversibly, said Prashant Sharma, chairman, Indian Chamber of Commerce health task force. “If the disruptions continue, we will lose Bangladeshi patients to SE Asian counties like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, which already attract a significant chunk,” said Sharma, who’s MD of Charnock Hospital
Other hospitals, too, such as Desun Hospital, BP Poddar and Peerless, are also losing Bangladeshi patients. “We have no Bangladeshi patient admitted now, and have fewer than 40 at the OPD,” said Peerless CEO Sudipta Mitra. He, however, felt that the loss could be temporary.
