Losing the Edge: India’s Medical Tourism Stumbles While Rivals Surge Ahead
By Arunima Rajan
In the time it takes to get a medical visa, patients are already recovering elsewhere.
India once wore its medical tourism crown with quiet confidence. Patients from across continents came chasing affordable, high-quality care, many from just across the border in Bangladesh. But now, that once-steady stream has slowed to a trickle. And in the silence, competitors are making noise.
At the heart of this story is Magnus, a healthcare facilitator that’s spent over a decade connecting international patients to Indian hospitals. With its dual engine—Magnus Medi for on-the-ground coordination and Simplify MVT, a technology-driven SaaS platform—the company built a system that worked. Visas, logistics, post-op care, even SIM cards, Magnus handled it all. But none of that matters if patients can't get past immigration.
Magnus’s transformation didn’t happen overnight. Founded in 2009 as a travel services company, it pivoted toward medical tourism in 2013 after spotting a global healthcare access gap. By 2016, it formally committed to the sector under the banner of Magnus Medi Tourism Private Limited. The company’s growth has been shaped by founder and Group CEO Mihir Vora, an MBA with a background in hospitality. He understood that healthcare tourism isn't just about hospitals. As Vora puts it, “The journey doesn’t start in a hospital ward. It begins at immigration.” And that is precisely where India is starting to falter.
Magnus Medi is now an NABH and IATA-accredited company, one of the few in the facilitation space with both recognitions. It built a footprint across nine major cities in Bangladesh and emerged as one of the top facilitators of care for Bangladeshi nationals. For years, nearly half of India’s medical tourists came from Bangladesh, bringing in a solid 35 percent of total sector revenue. The trust was mutual: Bangladeshis trusted Indian doctors, and Indian hospitals built business models around their visits.
Now that trust is eroding, not because of the hospitals, but because of what happens before the hospital ever enters the picture.
Visa approvals that once flowed at 6,000 per day have crashed to around 600. Processing times stretch into weeks, even for patients facing urgent diagnoses. “For someone in pain, the delay isn’t a paperwork issue—it’s life or death,” says Vora. Some patients simply can’t wait. Instead, they’re choosing Thailand, Malaysia, and Turkey, nations that responded to the opportunity with agility.
The numbers are stark. Bangladeshi patient volume is now a third of what it once was. The loss isn’t just financial, it’s reputational. This isn’t a niche segment. In cities like
Delhi, foreign patients make up 20 to 40 percent of hospital revenue. In Mumbai, it's 7 to 9 percent. That’s not extra cash, it’s the money that pays for new machines, staff, and surgical wings. And while India hesitates, others have studied its playbook and improved on it. They’ve kept the doctors and slashed the red tape.
To its credit, Magnus hasn’t stayed stuck. It now brings in patients from East Africa, the Gulf, Iraq, and beyond. Cities and routes define flow: Mumbai sees more East Africans and Gulf nationals, while Delhi, with broader diplomatic reach, pulls in patients from CIS nations, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.
These patients aren’t here for cosmetic tweaks. They come for cardiac care, oncology, organ transplants—high-stakes, high-value procedures that their home countries simply can’t offer. And historically, India delivered quickly, affordably, and well. But even these flows are starting to feel the friction.
The Indian government isn’t blind to the opportunity. Campaigns like “Heal in India” and the Ayush visa are promising signals. But ambition without execution is just wishful thinking.
A key drag is the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), a name that strikes fear into the hearts of facilitators and patients alike. Opaque, inconsistent, and painfully slow, it’s the bureaucratic bottleneck that makes world-class hospitals feel like black holes of paperwork.
Digital tools exist. But the roll-out is patchy, and the results are unreliable. “Good intentions don’t fix broken systems,” Vora says. “We need execution, not just vision.”
With Bangladesh cooling off, East African nations like Kenya, Tanzania, and Sudan are heating up. The healthcare need is urgent, the payments are fast thanks to cash-based systems, and bilateral ties are solid. Flights are frequent. Demand is rising. For many patients, India isn’t just an option, it’s the only real option. But only if the experience holds up.
Most people think of medical tourism as scalpels and scan reports. But the real product is peace of mind. Patients travel thousands of kilometres not just for treatment but for trust. They need translators, pick-up vans, hotel bookings, WhatsApp updates, emotional support.
That’s where facilitators like Magnus earn their keep. They aren’t just logistics providers, they’re experience designers. They help patients feel safe in a strange land. That soft power is hard to replicate and easy to ruin.
India’s got the fundamentals: doctors, infrastructure, pricing. But the game has evolved. Thailand and Turkey offer cleaner processes, faster approvals, and smoother hospitality. They’ve refined the India model and, in many ways, outpaced it.
What used to be India’s lead is now just a memory unless reform kicks in fast.
India doesn’t need a moonshot. Just common sense and coordination. Here's the short list:
Slash visa processing times
Fully digitise and standardise FRRO operations
·Align hospitals, facilitators, and policymakers on shared goals
The demand is still there. The goodwill hasn't evaporated. But every delayed visa is a lost opportunity and a win for someone else.
India led the medical tourism race by delivering on cost, quality, and clinical excellence. Now it must address access and systemic friction before patients and the credibility it built start looking elsewhere.
Got a story that Healthcare Executive should dig into? Shoot it over to arunima.rajan@hosmac.com—no PR fluff, just solid leads.