Kazi Nazifa Dilruba, Mohammad Ataur Rahman Khan, Sadia Islam :
Bangladesh, with a population of 168 million (70% in rural areas), is experiencing rapid economic growth (Nominal GDP: $467.2 billion in 2025) but faces significant healthcare challenges. Despite health being a fundamental human right, only 5.2% of the national budget is allocated to health which is well below the global average of 10.3%.
Due to inadequate domestic healthcare infrastructure and services, over $5 billion is spent annually by Bangladeshi citizens seeking medical treatment abroad, primarily in India. In 2023, nearly 450,000 Bangladeshis traveled to India for care-up from 304,000 in 2022-with Kolkata being the most preferred destination because of cultural similarity in addition to quality treatment received. Key drivers of this medical exodus include shortage of specialists (e.g., only 661 cardiologists nationwide), limited access to advanced medical facilities (only 87 cath labs, mostly in Dhaka), poor doctor- and nurse-to-population ratios, overcrowded and underfunded public hospitals, weak regulatory oversight and trust issues in local healthcare, referrals by local doctors and influence of positive experiences shared by others.
This gives rise to the question of what are the salient features of medical tourism in India that attract foreign citizens? The convincing answer is that India has a comprehensive policy framework in place to support their medical tourism.
This includes a dedicated strategy and roadmap, visa facilitation, promotional campaigns, and collaboration with various ministries. They have also formed the National Medical & Wellness Tourism Board to boost the industry. These efforts aim to attract international patients, improve healthcare infrastructure, and leverage India’s affordable and high-quality healthcare services.
Given current political instability and efforts to reform the country, this is a good time to start thinking of reforms in the medical sector especially with the new financial budget year coming up.
Increase in budget allocation for the health sector is a prerequisite to bringing in change to the current trend of medical tourism away from the country. Retaining our patients from opting for medical tourism will also require reforms at the education system and healthcare sector.
CID has found that question papers were leaked 10 times in the past 16 years for medical college admissions tests. This raises concern regarding the integrity of our medical system and puts future patients at risk.
Events like these question reliability and push patients away from local health facilities. Attention from both education and health ministries is necessary to tackle this malpractice.
Furthermore, continuous medical education (CME) can be introduced to ensure practicing doctors are staying updated with the new medical advancements and technologies. Better accredited systems need to be ensured in medical schools to improve education quality and bring out more capable future doctors. The education system needs to expand its postgraduate training seats and also provide incentives for specialising in underserved medical fields. Another way to improve the quality of our doctors is through collaborating with international hospitals and bringing in visiting doctors from abroad to train Bangladeshi staff.
Another reformative measure can be introducing pre med degrees to ensure that medical students are being fully prepared to enter the medical sector. Unlike most other professions, healthcare requires its participants to be highly skilled and possess utmost level of integrity and commitment to the job because in this field not money but human lives are at stake.
The health sector also needs to do its part at ensuring patient retention.
One of the ways to do this is through encouraging public private partnerships to build world class hospitals, diagnostic centres and medical schools.
Strict guidelines and accreditations need to be enforced for pathology labs to ensure consistency and reliability of test results which has a reputation of producing false reports specially in hospitals claiming affordability.
A measure to improve our health services can be through mandating government officials to receive treatments from local hospitals rather than opting for treatments abroad. With foreign assistance like the currently discussed project of China Bangladesh Friendship General Hospital, it might not be long before we can retain our patients from seeking treatments abroad.
Improvements in medical technologies, infrastructures and doctor patient relationship are also crucial to bringing about positive changes.
The poor healthcare service at home is driving away patients from Bangladesh to neighbouring countries like India and Thailand. Given the current political tension with India, medical visas are being delayed putting patients at risk who would previously visit India for treatments.
While around 5000 to 7000 medical visas were approved previously, now the number has abruptly dropped to fewer than 1000 visas a day.
The reason patients prefer going to India particularly West Bengal is the advanced medical treatment they receive at an affordable price.
Due to the newly imposed restrictions, these patients have no option but to either opt for much more expensive medical tourism destinations like China, Malaysia or Singapore. This gets out of reach for the majority who have financial constraints as well and visiting these countries for treatment would cost a fortune.
Bangladesh health care sector can stretch its services beyond local patients and attract patients from neighbouring countries through taking appropriate measures like investing in specialised facilities, pursuing international accreditations like the JCI (Joint Commision International) and promoting affordability. Through identifying our shortcomings and improving them the tide can shift from being an unreliable medical zone to one that attracts foreign patients.
This would not only make Bangladesh a desirable medical tourism hub but also have positive financial implications. Rather than cash outflow due to foreign medical expenditures, the health sector of the country can draw in money from abroad and help increase the foreign reserve.
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(The authors are Masters
students at the Economics Department of East West University)
