The Impact of Participatory Scenario Planning on Medical Tourism for Cancer Treatment in Delhi NCR: The Case of Sharda Health City

Abstract

This work focuses on participatory decision scenario planning for medical tourism among cancer patients in the Delhi NCR (National Capital Region) of India, with a practical application at Sharda Health City, a new cancer hospital in the district. Although
participatory scenario planning has been widely used with promising results in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, a model that considers the unique economic, technological, legal, and socio-cultural characteristics of the Delhi NCR market does not exist. Instead, a series of participatory scenario studies has been conducted in India to envision future changes in the Indian subcontinent; however, the outputs of these studies are generic scenarios aimed at forming policy for India over the next decade, rather than providing specific options for any firm offering medical tourism opportunities for cancer patients. In this respect, there is a feeling among scholars, managers, and practitioners in India that such works, although brilliant and effective in generating policies to further develop India, are of little use when it comes to problems existing with scenario development and implementation in specific businesses and markets. The current work attempts to clarify this question by developing a participatory decision scenario planning model for the firm mentioned above. However, even if customized, scenarios still seem to provide vague options. We test the robustness of the scenario options produced in the present study using a Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) model in conjunction with scenario planning. With a projected revenue of 1.1 billion USD in 2024, India's medical tourism industry for cancer treatment is rapidly evolving (Shetty, 2024).
Therefore, the author expects that the model will inspire more research in this area, as the results of the study will be compared with other participatory decision scenario studies in India and globally, providing a reference for future researchers.