Patients from Bangladesh are going back to several private hospitals in Kolkata. While their number dropped to almost zero after the second wave of COVID-19, it has now jumped to around 50% of the pre-pandemic numbers, as land travel to and from Bangladesh resumed on February 25.
RN Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences (RTIIC) used to get 250 Bangladeshi inpatients a month and 150 outpatients a day, has now said it is getting 100 inpatients a month and 80 outpatients a day. Bangladeshi patients contributed around 10%-12% of RTIICS’s revenue until the pandemic.
At Peerless Hospital, the number of Bangladeshi patients is said to have jumped to 40-50 a day, from zero in early January. This compares to 100-150 patients from Bangladesh daily in 2019. AMRI Hospitals is also claiming to be treating 3,000 a month, more now than before the pandemic.