New Delhi: To boost the largely unregulated medical tourism sector in the Capital, the Delhi government plans to develop a digital portal to streamline the patient experience by providing end-to-end services, including hospital and specialist matching, standardised treatment packages, real-time journey tracking, multilingual support and grievance redressal, officials said on Sunday.Officials said DTTDC has floated a Request for Proposal (RFP) to appoint an agency to design, develop, operate, and maintain the platform (HT)They added that the proposed project — Delhi Medical and Wellness Tourism (DMWT) — will be implemented by the Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) and awarded for an initial period of 10 years.Officials said DTTDC has floated a Request for Proposal (RFP) to appoint an agency to design, develop, operate, and maintain the platform while bearing all capital and operational expenditure. The project targets empanelling at least five Joint Commission International (JCI)-accredited hospitals, 25 NABH-accredited hospitals, 15 wellness centres and 30 ground service providers within 180 days of appointing an agency, and a full public launch within 240 days.According to official estimates, Delhi receives over three million national and international patientsannually and has emerged as one of India’s leading healthcare destinations, backed by super-speciality hospitals, advanced diagnostic centres and AYUSH facilities.“However, the sector continues to face challenges such as fragmented service delivery, lack of standardisation, inconsistent patient experience and the influence of unauthorised intermediaries,” said an official.He added that most hospitals operate their medical tourism departments independently, without a central city-level coordination mechanism or shared data intelligence.“Delhi has all the physical and clinical assets required to become a global medical tourism capital, but the absence of standardised systems and governance prevents it from reaching the scale of international competitors such as Singapore, Turkey and Thailand,” he said.The proposed platform seeks to address these issues through a government-regulated digital ecosystem that will function as a single-window system for domestic and international patients seeking treatment in the capital, the official said.To ensure transparency and monitor records, the government will integrate the portal with hospital information systems, immigration authorities, payment gateways and the National Medical Value Travel Portal.The appointed agencywill be responsible for empanelment of hospitals, doctors, diagnostic centres, AYUSH facilities, hotels and other service providers after verifying their accreditation and regulatory compliance, officials said.The portal will carry details of standardised treatment packages and pricing to improve transparency and reduce the scope for exploitation by unauthorised agents.Besides managing the digital platform, the selected agency will also be responsible for providing 24x7 multilingual patient assistance, coordinating medical visas, travel, accommodation and post-treatment follow-up, and promoting Delhi through international marketing campaigns, trade fairs, digital outreach and partnerships with overseas institutions, officials said.The government’s move to develop a portal for promotion and regulation of medical tourism in Delhi comes over a month after a fire at a BnB facility in Hauz Rani claimed 23 lives, including 14 foreigners, who had either accompanied family members for treatment here or were themselves undergoing treatment. The foreigners were staying at the facility owing to its proximity to Max Hospital, Saket. Following the fire incident, authorities launched a crackdown on other facilities in the area forcing many foreign nationals to shift to other locations.Last year, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also spoke about her vision to strengthen health services to attract patients from across the globe.“We aim to make Delhi a global destination for medical treatment. Promoting health tourism will not only enhance medical services but will also strengthen the economic ecosystem. Delhi government is continuously working to reform and expand the healthcare sector,” she had said.