Apollo Hospitals on Thursday showcased India's emergence as a preferred global healthcare destination and said that five international patients had utilised its healthcare expertise.

The five patients join over 95,000 international patients who have satisfactorily undergone treatment at various Apollo Hospitals in the country, according to a press statement.

Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, also announced the successfull completion of a Birmingham Hip Re-surfacing procedure on a British national.

The surgery according to Apollo officials was an indication of the trend with patients from the Western countries preferring India for as destination for their healthcare requirements even for surgical procedures like BHR, a procedure developed in Birmingham, Britain and available in the West.

Prathap C Reddy, the chairman of Apollo Hospitals group, said: "The medical tourism industry, which is estimated to be worth Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion)s annually, has not only the potential to generate substantial forex earnings but also provide employment opportunities for the large pool of skilled labor available in India."

"India has the wherewithal to offer comprehensive medical solutions to the world and is poised to become the preferred global healthcare destination," he said.

Reddy also highlighted the need for public-private partnership between the government and healthcare institutions to attract patients from not just the Afro-Asian region but from the West as well, just as was being done in Bangkok (Thailand) "which has more than 200 international flights per week and is a hub for foreign tourist traffic in the region.

Apollo is spearheading an urgent proposal to the civil aviation ministry to increase international flights not just metropolis like Mumbai and Delhi but also to smaller cities like Pune, Kochi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai which have been able to deliver consistently world class quality healthcare.

Some of the key reasons why increasingly international patients are choosing India as a medical destination include facts like Indian medical expertise and talent rivaling their Western counterparts, medical infrastructure available at hospitals like Apollo.