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The falling rupee is giving to cosmetic surgery clinics in the country a makeover.
Two major outfits saw 20-25 per cent growth in medical tourists from foreign shores, especially the US and Europe, in the first half of this fiscal. Patients come mainly to shed kilos or hair-augmentation procedures.
Confirming the trend, Anup Dhir, senior cosmetic surgeon at Apollo Hospitals, said the US and the EU currently account for around 15 per cent (over 11,000) of the 75,000 foreign patients who undergo cosmetic surgery in India.
According to him, the number of cosmetic surgery patients from SAARC countries, Africa and West Asia — accounting for 85 per cent of the total inflow — has also “gone up” in recent months.
Sanjeev Mahajan, CEO of Enhance Clinics, a cosmetic surgery chain, attributed the rise in patient arrivals to “the sharp fall in the rupee”.
The cost of such treatment in India is a fraction (between one-fourth and one-tenth) of that in developed countries. The currency devaluation has made it even cheaper.
“India is now competing with countries such as Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines as a low-cost destination for cosmetic surgery,” said Mahajan.
Sandra, a 47-year-old American who recently underwent treatment at Enhance Clinics, said the price advantage was why she came to India.
“I did my initial research on the Net and I found that India was a good place to go to for my procedure. I was in touch with the surgeon for over six months. I finally took a call to go ahead when the Indian currency depreciated considerably,” she said in an email to Business Line .
Cost, Mahajan says, plays an important role as insurance is not available for cosmetic surgeries. Moreover, he claims, the quality of treatment in India is on a par with that in developed countries.
> ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in
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