Educational Media Reviews Online

This Australian news program looks at the growing health care and hospitalization industry in India and the wide disparity in service it is creating between the rich and the poor.

It focuses on the Apollo Hospital in New Delhi, a clean, bright, first-rate hospital with an impressive success rate. Most of the patients here are wealthy Indians or rich foreigners that can not be treated in their own countries for various reasons. It follows the story of Averill Dollery, a British woman whose back surgery has been deemed too risky by British doctors and after 13 years of chronic pain is willing to make the trip to India to see if they will perform the procedure. Although the Indian doctors agree that the back surgery carries some risk, they are ready to try it and throw in a knee replacement as well. With everything a success, she is ready to go home after 16 days.

Contrasting with the experience of Averill Dollery are the usual long lines, brief doctor visits, and limited surgeries of the hospital across town that will take India’s poor. It is nearly impossible to be treated properly here, but it is the only choice for most of the population. The Apollo Hospital does have a ward for people unable to pay, but the beds are nearly all empty. The required letter from the Delhi government to get into the hospital is not widely known and not promoted by either the hospital or the government.

India: Medical Tourism points out the ever increasing global chasm between the rich and poor, and magnifies it in the microcosm of New Delhi health care. Shot in typical news program style (think 20/20 or Dateline), this 25 minute video would be appropriate for library collections supporting health sciences, economics, sociology and business classes. Recommended as a limited case study, or an introduction to the world health inequity issue.