Chief Minister MK Stalin with Health Minister Ma. Subramanian during the inauguration of the ‘Tamil Nadu Medical Value Travel Summit’ in Chennai on Saturday. , Photo Credit: SR Raghunathan
Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday inaugurated a two-day Medical Value Travel Conclave aimed at bringing together hospitals from 21 source countries with hospitals in Tamil Nadu, which are accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers.
The event titled ‘Tamil Nadu – Where the world comes to heal’ was jointly organized by the tourism and health departments. Sources said the patients were referred from other countries either by hospitals or through agents. This area was not very organized and needed to be streamlined. Worldwide, medical value travel is valued at $25 billion and was growing rapidly.
Around 80 delegates heard from experts from 10 chosen specialties including plastic surgery, gastroenterology, cancer and heart and lung transplantation. The hospitals included them under the Ministry of AYUSH and a session on Holistic Treatment was also organized.
Tourism Secretary B. Chandra Mohan said such meetings would be held on an annual basis and a special secretariat would be formed to keep in touch with foreign hospitals. “We had a B2B session where hospital representatives met each other without the interference of agents. Tomorrow, the foreign delegates will be given a tour of the city hospitals’ facilities,” he said.
Minister Hon. Subramaniam, K. Ramachandran, T.M. Ambarasan and T. Mano Thangaraj, Health Secretary P. Senthilkumar and Director, Tourism, Sandeep Nanduri were among those who were present at the event, said a press release here.