Russian health services exports total $1.4 bln in H1 - minister

GELENDZHIK. Oct 7 (Interfax) - Russia's exports of medical services was $1.4 billion in H1 and could reach $3 billion by the end of 2024, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.

"Just how appealing our national healthcare system has become to date. The president set the task as part of the national project of raising the equivalent of $1 billion in exports of medical services in six months of the year. The figure was 1.4 [billion] in six months. This means that we will reach the figure of $3 billion by the yearend," Murashko said at a plenary session of the Bioprom forum on Monday.

The structure of medical tourism has "drastically changed," he said. Patients come to Russia "for a complicated surgery and for oncology, not just classic ophthalmology and orthopedics," he said. "It is the complicated surgical interventions, including those using national technologies that have become appeal," Murashko said.