Committee formed to push healthcare tourism in Goa

Tourism being the most important money churner for Goa, corporates and doctors today joined hands to bring in medical and healthcare tourism to the state in a big way.

A dozen renowned doctors from all fields, right from cardiology to plastic surgery have come together to form a healthcare sector committee and will be working with the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) who will do the marketing.

Dr Uday Khanolkar, interventional cardiologist of Apollo Victor Hospital and also chairman of the newly found committee, said, "Goa has the best of healthcare field in terms of experts, machineries. But the awareness is very limited. The committee has been formed primarily to push healthcare as a business venture in the state.''

The step has been taken to ensure health problems of the local people get treated within the state. Currently, most of the serious cases are referred to Mumbai or Chennai.

Again, with family members of at least 70 per cent Goan families living abroad, the proposal of health tourism can act as a money saver package for the visitors home.

Apart from these two categories, the committee will also be working with Indian Medical Association (IMA) to obtain no objection for treating foreign nationals who visit Goa as tourists.

"Tourism will always remain an attraction in coastal Goa. Added to it, if we can create and market world-class medical facilities, then it is going to bring in higher business.

With healthcare being cheaper in India, Goa is still cheaper by another 10 per cent even for private hospitals. If we can offer such world-class healthcare facilities, then foreign tourism will remain active throughout the year. For this purpose, we are also in talks with the insurance companies,'' said Khanolkar.