Путешествие - Travelling. Руденко Т.П. - 21 стр.

countries are going there for treatment. A number of private hospitals in              “The American system is excellent, but the cost and the compulsion
India offer packages designed to attract foreign patients, with airport-to-     to send people home early is actually stressing out many people, and they
hospital bed transfer service, Internet access, and other facilities. Some      prefer to come to our country where we can take care of them in a more
packages include add-ons, such as a yoga holiday or a trip to the world-        comprehensive manner. Our nurses are being trained to U.S. levels. Two
famous Taj Mahal.                                                               hundred of our nurses have already gone to the United States for training.
       Howard Staab, a 53-year-old carpenter-contractor from North              Our doctors have established their credentials all over the world. Today, 7
Carolina, was diagnosed last year with a serious heart condition. Mr.           percent of doctors in America are Indians and 11 percent of the specialists
Stabb’s doctor recommended surgery as soon as possible. But he had no           are Indians.”
health insurance.                                                                      Language is another big advantage in India, says Howard Staab, who
       The estimate for hospital care alone was nearly $100,000. The cost       spent more than three weeks in Escorts Hospital and at a resort,
for the surgeon, the cardiologist, the anesthesiologist, the radiologist, and   recuperating after surgery: “Doctors and nurses were all Indians, and many
the pathologist, along with the cost of a heart valve and prescription drugs,   of the doctors were trained in the United States and Britain and most of
has brought the total up to a staggering $200,000 – assuming no                 them spoke very good English. I did not have any trouble understanding
complications. Howard Staab did some research and decided to go to              them.”
Escorts Hospital in New Delhi, where the estimated cost was under                      Howard Staab’s partner Maggie Grace, who accompanied him on his
$10,000, including airfare, surgery, and rehabilitation.                        medical trip to India, is writing a book about their experience. “We want to
       “I was apprehensive (in the beginning) because I had no experience       help people in the United States know they have choices,” says Mr. Staab.
with India or about the quality of care, and the situation there,” says Mr.     “There will be our book coming out very soon. My partner Maggie Grace
Staab. “But my experience was superb. From the time we arrived at the           is writing it. The book title is “Patient Pilgrimage: A True Story of the
airport, Escorts Hospital people escorted us to the hospital, gave us           First Americans Travel to India for Heart Surgery” and the website is
excellent care. The surgeons and all the staff were extremely professional,     www.howardsheart.com.”
kind and caring. Everything went very well and I was so satisfied and                  Howard Staab says one key to his trip’s success was that it combined
impressed with the care.”                                                       a high degree of medical excellence with a human touch.
       Dr. Naresh Trehan is the executive director of Escorts Heart Institute          India is hoping to expand its medical tourism industry. In addition to
and Research Centre in New Delhi, a leading private healthcare provider.        Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre in New Delhi, Apollo is
Dr. Trehan worked as a heart surgeon in Manhattan from 1968 until 1988,         another major hospital group and is one of Asia's largest private healthcare
but returned to start the Escorts Hospital Group in India. He says the          providers. Apollo Group has six hospitals in India, one in the southern city
success of the operations performed and the care dispensed at his hospital      of Hyderabad where Apollo also has its headquarters. Other Apollo
have established the institute’s credibility:                                   hospitals are in New Delhi, Chennai (formerly Madras), Lucknow, Pune
       “Now we do over 4,000 heart operations a year, and the mortality,        and Kolkata (Calcutta). Apollo has treated 43,000 foreign patients during
which is an index of how well things are, is 0.8 % which is even better than    the last three-and-a-half years.
most places in the world. The other thing that we measure is infection rate.           Several medical experts say India has established expertise in
Ours is 0.3 % as compared to the world average of 1%.”                          practices such as cardiac care, cosmetic surgery, joint replacements, and
       Dr. Trehan says American citizens not covered by insurance – or          dentistry. And it has immense potential for medical tourism as medical
those in countries such as the United Kingdom where there are long              costs skyrocket in the United States and other developed countries.
waiting lists for many National Health services - prefer to receive treatment
in a country like India where top-tier institutions can provide high-quality
health care at a fraction of the cost:

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