3. Lists of Indian Hospital websites:
http://www.hindustanlink.com/indian_hospitals_link.htm
http://www.iloveindia.com/directory/Health/Hospitals/
http://indiafocus.indiainfo.com/health/hospitals/
http://www.indiahospitalsearch.com/
http://dir.indiamart.com/indianservices/s_medicl.html
http://www.medindia.net/

10 Mar. 2003. Express Computers. Telemedicine: Emergence of the virtual doctor
http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20030310/focus1.shtml

Free service for Doctors and Patients:
http://www.webhealthcentre.com/telmed_station.asp

APOLLO NUSI HOSPITAL
& Research Centre
Panzarconi, Cuncolim, Salcete, Goa - 403 703.
Ph : 2862952, 2862904,5,6 Tele FAx : 2862953
E-mail : apollonusi@rediffmail.com
www.apollolife.com

KLES Hospital Belgaum (Goa Liaison Office)
http://www.klehospital.org/default.asp

Apollo Hospitals
21/22, Greams Lane
Chennai - 600 006
Tel: (91 44) 2829 0200/2829 3333
Fax: (91 44) 2829 4429
Email: ahel@vsnl.com
Website: http://www.apollohospitals.com

Madras Medical Mission
# 4-A, Dr J J Nagar
Mogappair
Chennai - 600 050, India
Tel: (91 44) 625 9801/9810
Fax: 625 9919/20/21
Email: mmmbits@vsnl.com

Mallya Hospital
2, Vittal Mallya Road,
Bangalore - 560 001, India.
Tel: (91 80) 227 7979, 227 7990/91/92/93
Fax: (91 80) 224 23 26
Email: info@indianexus.com

Wockhardt Hospital & Heart Institute
14, Cunningham Road
Bangalore 560 052, India.
Tel: (91 80) 2261037, 2281146
Fax: (91 80) 2281149
E-mail: sahayata@whhi.com
Website: http://www.whhi.com

Aravind Eye Hospitals
www.aravind.org

1 Feb. 2005: The Guardian. Is health tourism the future?
Heart bypass UK: £15,000; India: £4,300.
Hip replacement UK: £9,000; India: £3,180
Cataract operation UK: £2,900; India: £660
http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,7890,1403158,00.html

27 Jan. 2005: Bloomberg.com. Indian Hospitals Lure Foreigners With $6,700 Heart Surgery. 3425 words.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=nifea&&sid=a8vosisrgmd0

5 Jun. 2004. British Medical Journal: Hospitals in India woo foreign patients. Currently the NHS does not fund British patients to go to India.
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/328/7452/1338.pdf

11 May. 2004. The Guardian. Sun, sea, sand ... and surgery. Faced with a choice between NHS waiting lists and expensive private clinics, says Joanna Moorhead, more and more Britons are opting to go abroad for treatment - with a holiday thrown in. http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1213749,00.html

11 May. 2004. The Guardian. 'My room was like in a four-star hotel and all the staff spoke English' http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1213750,00.html

8 Oct. 2003. The Guardian. NHS operations abroad.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/qa/story/0,14095,1099013,00.html

31 Jul. 2001. The Guardian. Sick of waiting for your NHS op? Then why not go abroad? Emily Wilson offers a rough guide to health tourism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,3605,498854,00.html

General

10 Jul. 2004. Hindustan Times. NHS waiting list prompts more patients to seek cure in India. http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_878885,00430005.htm

9 Jul. 2004. The Guardian. Scheme to process NHS clinical tests in India. The government is considering shipping blood and urine samples from NHS patients to India for clinical tests in order to cut costs. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1257362,00.html

4 Jul. 2004. Evening Mail (Birmingham). Cut-price treatment offered to Brummies Jul 4 2004
By Caroline Wheeler And Amardeep Bassey
DOCTORS from India are targeting the Midlands to encourage the growth of 'medical tourism' to the sub-contient. For full text click here

27 Jun. 2004. Sunday Herald (Scotland). India offers cure for UK waiting lists. http://www.sundayherald.com/42979

16 Apr. 2004. Express Healthcare Management (India). UK spikes India's medical tourism dream.
http://www.expresshealthcaremgmt.com/20040430/coverstory01.shtml

20 Mar. 2004. Buzzle.com. India wins UK’s heart.
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/3-18-2004-51843.asp

14 Mar. 2004. Organiser. Shining India beckons British patients. For full text click here

13 Feb. 2004. The Times. Headline: Tour operators to offer cut-price surgery in India. Excerpt: British patients are being enticed to jump NHS queues and travel to India for cut-price medical treatment. Travel operators are set to launch package tours to Indian hospitals later this year. Thomas Cook India and other major tour companies will offer return flights, an operation at a Bombay hospital, and post-operative sightseeing at South Indian temples or recuperation on the beach at Goa. 879 words. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-999258,00.html

9 Apr. 2000. BBC.
Kidney transplants cost £500 in India compared to £8,490 in the UK.
The £5,000 cost in the UK of a heart bypass was 10 times more expensive than in India.
Hip replacements costing up to £6,500 in Britain cost £865 in India with no waiting time.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/706713.stm

8 Apr. 2000. The Independent. Send patients abroad for treatment, says ex-minister. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=2272

10 May 2001. BBC. Pensioner has heart op in India

Eye

10 May 2001. The Times. Flights abroad from slow NHS. In 1999 Fred Wade, 65, flew to Madras in south India for an operation to remove cataracts from both eyes after being told he would have to wait a year, even though he could barely see, or pay £5,000 to have it done privately.

30 May. 2000. Scottish Daily Record. Ronald Judd, from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, is forking out up to £2000 for a trip to India for a cataract operation.

24 Apr. 1998. The Independent – London. India flight beats queues in NHS. A Pensioner sick of waiting for a cataract operation flew to India to avoid NHS queues. Noel Martin paid £60 for the operation - which he said would have cost around £3,000 at a private hospital in Britain. The 70-year-old, from Chertsey, in Surrey, said he would return to India if he ever needs treatment again. " The operation was performed at a clinic in Ajmer, 300 miles south of Delhi.

Heart

10 May. The Times. Briton, 71, has cut-price heart bypass in India. Ken Roche, 71, a Royal Navy veteran who was told that he would have to wait for more than a year for a heart bypass operation on the NHS has paid £6,300 to have the surgery in India. His daughter, Sarah, who has a home in the Indian state of Goa, persuaded him to fly 4,500 miles to undergo the operation in Bombay.

Orthopaedics:

9 Jul. 2004. BBC. Indian op woman dodges NHS wait. Sarah Paris
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3879371.stm

9 Jul. 2004. The Guardian.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/nhsperformance/story/0,8150,1257858,00.html

4 Jul. The Sunday Mirror. My India knee op. A disabled woman flew to India for knee surgery after finding a cut-price operation offered on the internet. June Proffitt, 45, who had osteo-arthritis, can walk again after the £2,200 operation which would have cost four times as much in the UK.

14 Apr. 2004. Daily Star. Alex's op and spicy. Back sufferer Alex Cooperwhite, 55, who could not get treatment in Britain, has been healed in India. The father-of-five went on the internet and found a hospital in Goa offering an operation for £1,500. Mr Cooperwhite, from Blackburn, West Lothian, said: "They really put the NHS to shame”.

13 Dec. 2003 BBC. 03. James Campbell praises Indian surgeons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3316739.stm
29 Sep. 2003. BBC. India lures James Campbell for knee surgery. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3143612.stm

22 Feb 2004. Gomantak Times. Carol Killinary, a 63-year-old UK national underwent pioneering orthopaedic surgery at the Apollo NUSI in Goa. The cost of the 9 hour operation was about £3,000. The UK price would have been £15,000.

Apollo-NUSI docs fix UK patient’s back
in grueling nine-hour surgery

Our Staff Reporter
MARGAO: In what could be described as a path-breaking orthopaedic surgical procedure in the state, a team of senior surgeons and anaesthetists successfully conducted a major spinal surgery on a 63-year-old UK national, at the Apollo NUSI Hospitals and Research Centre, Cuncolim recently.
According to Apollo NUSI Hospitals and Research Centre, chief executive officer Bismark Martins, the case involved a patient, Carol Killinary from UK with severe pain and restrictive movement, who was not able to walk unaided, sit or even sleep.
An earlier surgery conducted two years ago in the United Kingdom on Carol to solve the same problem, was not of much help.
The grueling nine-hour surgery enabled her to turn around on her hospital bed the very next day, something she was unable to do for the major portion of the last two years.
Explaining further, Martins said that the procedure was conducted to achieve “global” stabilization of two adjacent vertebrae, after clearing the entire disc space of remnants from the previous surgery.
Two expandable spinal implants or spinal cages were inserted into vertebral disc space whilst taking care not to damage the spinal cord or other sensitive organs around the vertebrae, thus obtaining a global fusion and stability. The cages were supplemented by bone graft.
To complete procedure reticular screws and rods were inserted.
Martins stated that while the surgery performed would cost the UK patient 15,000 pounds almost Rs 12 lakh in Indian currency, the same was carried out at just Rs 2.5 lakh.
Apollo NUSI Hospitals has been at forefront of pioneering surgical procedures in Goa. It may be recalled that a team of doctors, all of who are surgeons, carried out a total knee joint replacement.
Besides this, a variety of innovative laparoscopic procedures, never done in Goa, such as Fundo Plication and endoscopic surgery for varicose veins have been conducted at the hospital last year.
The Urology department of the hospital has been recently approved for Mediclaim Scheme by the Goa government. Martins informed that the present 32- bed hospital would be expanded to 75-bed with expansion works beginning in March this year. He also said that CT Scan facilities would be soon made available to patients.

But after research on the Internet, he found a hospital in southern India which offered him hope.

The 55-year-old father of five flew out to Goa, had a scan and was offered an immediate operation which, he says, cured the problem.

Less than a month later he was back in Britain after surgery, intensive care and physiotherapy at a total cost of only Pounds 1,500.

'I'm sure there are lots of people in the same situation as me who wouldn't even think of going to India and have just been left in constant pain,' said Mr Cooperwhite, from Blackburn, West Lothian.

He said he developed back trouble in the early 1980s while working long hours operating diggers on building sites. It left him unable to climb stairs and forced him to take time off work because of the pain.

In the 1990s, he said, he was referred to the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh where doctors said an operation would not cure his condition, known as invertebral disc prolapse.

It is caused when discs in the back wear out and fragments travel upwards colliding with the spinal cord resulting in shooting pains.

Last year, he was surfing the Internet and found details of the private 32-bed Apollo NUSI hospital in Goa, which specialises in spinal injuries and knee joint operations.

After arriving there in December, Mr Cooperwhite paid just Pounds 40 for an MRI scan and got the results a few hours later.

They said they could operate on him straightaway because there were no waiting lists. 'They really put the NHS to shame,' he said. 'I was told right away that if there is a pain it can definitely be cured and put on a ward while they prepared me for a few days.

'I had my operation on Boxing Day and I was out and walking around normally again by January 5.

'There was nothing they wouldn't do for you. You got your room cleaned twice a day, I got a special dietician to prepare me for the operation and they even installed cable TV in the room so I could understand the programmes.

'I even got told off for not pressing the buzzer enough to ask them for things.

'They did of course charge and I got an itemised bill down to even things like the toilet rolls, but the whole 18 days cost Pounds 1,500. It would probably cost me about Pounds 15,000 over here. I just wonder why the NHS told me I couldn't be operated on.' Mr Cooperwhite's wife Rita, 53, footed the bill for his operation. An NHS spokesman said: 'I am not aware of this case but we will be investigating how this came to happen.

'If a patient does make a complaint about these kind of matters they are treated seriously and will be looked into.' Invertebral disc prolapse, which is most common in the middle-aged, is caused by a jarring of the back and can be brought on by something as minor as a sneeze. More often it is the result of an accident while lifting a heavy object.

In its mildest form, the problem can be fought with painkillers, physiotherapy and mild exercise, and symptoms will disappear in around six weeks.

However, in untreatable cases, sufferers have to live with shooting back pains for the rest of their lives.

Doctors at home had told the 55-year-old there was nothing they could do.

The father-of-five went on the internet and found a hospital in Goa offering an operation for GBP 1,500.

Mr Cooperwhite, from Blackburn, West Lothian, said: "They really put the NHS to shame.

"I was told right away that if there was pain it can definitely be cured."

An NHS spokesman said: "I am not aware of this case, but we will be investigating how this came to happen."

Thomas Cook, which expects to be selling the holidays this summer, is using Britain to test the market. It is confident many Britons would rather pay to have an operation in a Third World country than wait for a hospital bed at home.

Standards in many Indian private hospitals are often higher than in many British NHS wards. The cost is also much cheaper than going private in Britain.

The company described the package deals as 'very affordable'. They are likely to range from around £1,500 to £8,000.

'What we want to offer are healthcare holidays where people can go and have their operations in hospitals recommended to them in our brochures,' said Ameeta Munshi, Thomas Cook's spokesman in India.

'We are tying up with selected hospitals which means people can have more confidence in them, although we expect a lot of patients will want to do their own research.

'This is going to be affordable and for anyone who is in pain and can't be treated on the NHS, the fact that healthcare is so much cheaper here anyway means the whole deal is going to be very attractive.

'Our lawyers and insurance experts are looking over the final details but we would expect to launch the deals within the next two to three months.'

The company is seizing on a trend which has seen an increasing number of Britons having surgery overseas.

Cheaper medical costs lured up to 150,000 international visitors to India last year, with around 400 from Britain.

That is a rise of 15 per cent in British patients in just 12 months.

The sun and surgery packages would include, for example, return flights, an operation at a Bombay hospital, and sightseeing at South Indian temples or recuperation on the beach at Goa.

At the more expensive end of the market, Indian doctors estimate that advanced heart surgery would cost an average of £6,000 in Bombay. But that compares to £30,000 in Britain.

There are comparable savings for other treatments such as joint replacement, neurosurgery and cancer therapies.

British patients often have to wait many months for vital operations on the NHS, despite the Government's targets to cut delays. The official target waiting time for a hip replacement is six months while a coronary heart bypass usually involves a three-month wait.

The reality is that many patients wait even longer as these targets do not apply until they have seen a specialist. That alone can take many months.

Medical tourism is expected to earn India up to £1billion a year by 2012 as foreigners flock to the country for treatment.

Private hospitals there treat patients as customers and are keen to encourage more overseas business. Patients are able to recuperate in private rooms. These are usually cleaned twice a day, in contrast to British hospitals where poor hygiene has been blamed for the spread of superbugs such as MRSA.

The rooms have cable television showing English language programmes.

Dieticians are on hand to prepare menu options.

The Apollo Hospitals Group is the largest healthcare chain in Asia. It has around 35 hospitals in India specialising in neurosurgery, cardiac and cancer treatment, IVF and paediatric care.

Last year, Apollo's hospital in Delhi treated 64 British patients - a 12 per cent increase on the previous year.

A spokesman said: 'It is a growing trend because NHS waiting times are getting very long. Now that people have discovered the personalised service and the quality of care we can offer, at a fraction of the cost, they realise it's probably worth travelling here.'

'HOPELESS CASE' CAME HOME CURED

WHEN British doctors said there was nothing they could do for his back condition, Alex Cooperwhite feared he would spend the rest of his life in pain.

It took a hospital in southern India to offer him hope.

The 56-year-old father of five flew to Goa, had a scan and was offered an immediate operation which, he says, cured the problem.

Less than a month later he was back in Britain after surgery, intensive care and physiotherapy - at a cost of only £1,500.

'I'm sure there are lots of people in the same situation as me who wouldn't even think of going to India and have just been left in constant pain,' said Mr Cooperwhite, from Blackburn, West Lothian.

He said he developed back trouble in the early 1980s while working long hours operating diggers on building sites.

In the 1990s, he said, he was referred to the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh where doctors said an operation would not cure his condition, known as invertebral disc prolapse.

It is caused when spinal discs wear out and fragments collide with the spinal cord.

It was while surfing the Net that he found details about the private 32-bed Apollo NUSI hospital in Goa, which specialises in spinal injuries and knee joint operations.

After arriving there in December 2003, Mr Cooperwhite paid £40 for an MRI scan.

He got the results a few hours later which helped him decide to go ahead with surgery.

Text:
Back in good shape like Alex Cooperwhite, who went to Goa for an operation, I've just returned from Goa where I had a back operation. I was also told that despite two years in severe pain, I would have to live in pain for the rest of my life. I am only 50 years old.

I am a nurse. I paid privately to see a consultant and he gave me a wrong diagnosis. When I asked for a second opinion, I was sent to the wrong consultant.

And so it went on.

I pleaded with the doctors to give me an MRI scan, which they eventually did in August 2005. The physiotherapist who gave me the results said I had 'normal wear and tear'.

I booked a three-week return flight to Goa. I arrived on a Monday and by Friday morning I was on the way to theatre for my operation.

In the meantime, they had given me lots of tests, and another MRI scan which cost £57 and the consultant came later in the day to explain the results to me and my husband.

The care, which I received, was excellent. I had my own room with cable TV. A newspaper was delivered every day.

The whole 21 days cost me £1,400. For that I received treatment and care which is now sadly lacking in England.