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Medicine
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The tendency of people to travel for the benefit of their health is not a new phenomenon. Medical tourism has played its part in the rediscovery of the main continent by the Britons after war with Napoleon. Earlier medical tourists had been mainly aristocratic, or at least leisured. Of late, the professional and middle classes with the means to travel and the motivation to escape from dismal urban surroundings and polluted air seek rest from overwork and travel abroad for treatment.

The association of the term ?Tourism? suggests a recreational or insignificant interest not capable of serious consideration, which stands against the proper definition of health care. Yet, the very notion of mobility to access health services now seems to enjoy the blessing of governments of many first world nations, such as the UK, where health care has been defined as a service and residents of England have been given the right to travel overseas for health care as they are subject to ?undue delay? at home.

Medical tourism has now established as a part of the developing bio- economy. The challenges presented by medical tourism, their associated booking agents and brochures, have become a debatable issue related to bio-technology, economics, ethics and human rights.

In order to attract medical tourists, investors in developing countries have built five-star hospitals staffed with highly skilled doctors and medical practitioners who are either board certified or are specialists with advanced degrees from the universities in developed nations. Increasingly, such hospitals are seeking accreditation because the accreditations are a means of assurance to medical tourists that they can get western quality healthcare at third world prices.

Healthcare centers providing facilities for medical tourists focus on core aspects of patient care, including such fundamental requirements as an admissions policy that has processes in place for access to and continuity of care, with appropriate measures in place for the discharge, referral, follow-up and transfer of patients. The policies adopted protect the medical tourist who has at best provided a medical history consisting of on-line health questionnaires, faxed medical records and perhaps telephone communications with the doctor?s office prior to actually arriving at the hospital for treatment.

Many medical tourists usually travel with a family member or friend for physical and emotional support during their medical treatment overseas. The healthcare centers also make proper arrangements for them to support such a companion by upholding their rights to information about the patient and the medical procedure(s) being provided and by allowing such persons to participate in treatment decisions.

India has evolved as the one of the leading nations promoting medical tourism. India is now steadily moving into a new area of "medical outsourcing," where Indian subcontractors provide services to the overburdened medical care systems in western countries. India?s high-end healthcare system is equipped with infrastructure and trained manpower comparable with the best in the world. Low cost of treatment, cheaper and hence more widely accessible travel and expensive or unavailable domestic treatment options in developed countries has fuelled medical tourism in India.