Dhaka : About 250-300 Bangladeshi patients visit Apollo Hospitals in Chennai daily for a range of medical services from preventive health checkups to advance healthcare.

Jithu Jose, Vice President of Apollo Hospitals India, said this while talking to The Bangladesh Monitor on the sidelines of a medical exhibition held recently in the capital.

Apollo Hospitals has been serving Bangladeshi patients since its establishment four decades ago, informed Jose.

According to him, Apollo Hospitals receive Bangladeshi patients who come for preventive health checkups once a year. These usually cost USD 150-200 each.

It may be mentioned here, Apollo Hospitals also offers AI enabled health checkups. Patients avail predictive risk assessments thanks to AI, Jose claimed.

Another unique phenomenon Jose mentioned is the fact that Bangladeshi patients not only come for health checkups but also for high-end medical care, according to Jose.

He mentioned some of the ultramodern healthcare services at Apollo Hospitals include the most advanced cancer care like proton beam therapy, bone marrow transplant, robotic spine surgery, robotic colorectal surgery and many others.

Bangladeshi patients feel safe, comfortable and confident in Apollo Hospitals to prefer to avail such critical medical needs from them, rejoiced Jose.

To make it easier for them, Apollo Hospitals has a tumor board which contains specialists of all kinds, claimed Jose, adding, these specialists sit together with the patients to decide and advise accordingly.

Thanks to these unique qualities of the hospital, Bangladeshi patients from all across the country visit Apollo. The brand welcomes a fair number of medical air travellers as well as those who come by land.

It may be mentioned here, the renowned hospital brand not only welcomes patients from Bangladesh but also from 20 countries in total, informed Jose, adding, they work with 26 governments currently.

However, due to the ongoing visa limitations to India for Bangladeshis following the mass uprising that ousted the former government, the number of medical travellers from Bangladesh to India has taken a massive hit, claimed Jose.

The number is currently down 45 per cent since the last two months, he added. Plenty of tourist visa holders used to opt for health checkups during their visit to India which has completely stopped now, he further expressed. He expects the situation will normalise soon.

Apollo Hospitals also has a franchise in Chattogram. It is a multidisciplinary hospital, mentioned Jose, adding, they will keep exploring opportunities to come back to Dhaka.

However, the headquarters in Chennai is unmatched, thanks to the sheer investment and high-end technology that one contains, said Jose.

He explained, in this part of the world, Apollo Chennai is the only hospital offering proton beam therapy. It is the most sophisticated advance technology for cancer treatment. It is possible to pull of even highly critical surgeries with it.

Another quality that makes Apollo the preferred choice to medical travellers is the fact that the hospital offers affordable healthcare. According to Jose, whenever Apollo brings a technology to India, it becomes affordable to people.