KOLKATA: Patients from Bangladesh, whose number had dwindled drastically since last month due to visa issues triggered by the elections in the country, have started streaming back to city private hospitals for treatment. At some hospitals, their number has doubled in the last 10 days. Most expect a bigger contingent of patients from next week and the steady flow should continue for a month, say hospitals.
Ruby General Hospital has received 250 Bangladeshi patients in the last one week. While it receives 600 Bangladesh patients a month on an average, the number had dropped to around 300 since Dec. "At this rate, the number could cross 800 this month, which would be the highest ever. This is partially due to the backlog since we have had very few patients from Bangladesh since Dec 25. Now that the elections are over and the travel restrictions lifted, the number has swelled," said Ruby's general manager - operations Subhasish Datta. He added that scores of appointments are being made for Feb.
At Medica, too, Bangladeshi patient footfall has increased post-elections. "Compared to Dec, we are seeing a 15% rise in patient footfall. We expect this flow to increase over the next few weeks," said joint MD Ayanabh Deb Gupta.
AMRI Hospitals, recently acquired by Manipal Hospitals, have seen a sharp revival in Bangladeshi footfall in the last one week. Across its three units, AMRI receives around 3,000 patients from the neighbouring country every month. It had dropped to 1,500 in Dec. "The numbers are rising again and have reached 2,000 in just a week. It could cross 3,000 by the end of Jan," said Rupak Barua, advisor (strategy & planning) of Manipal Hospitals.
A new portal has been launched by the state government along with the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh to reduce visa issuance time to two days, which is yet to be fully functional. Hospitals expect a steady flow of patients once it starts working.
Peerless had seen a drop in the number of Bangladesh patients since Nov. The numbers have started going up. "While we have at least 150 outdoor and around 30 inpatients from Bangladesh every day , the numbers had dropped to around 60 and 10, respectively. Between Jan 1 and 18, however, we have received 1,800 Bangladeshi patients," said CEO Sudipta Mitra.
There has been a dip in occupancy which is usual at this time of the year, according to Narayana Hospitals COO R Venkatesh. "This quarter sees fewer patients and the sudden reduction in the flow of Bangladeshi patients contributed to it. We have seen a dip of around 5%-7% in the occupancy due to both these factors. But the number of Bangladesh patients is yet to increase significantly," said Narayana Hospitals COO R Venkatesh.
At BP Poddar Hospital, the number of Bangladesh patients has dropped from 11 in Nov to just three this month.
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