PATIENTS FLEE NHS WAITING LIST HELL
Crisis in hospitals triggers huge rise in Britons seeking treatment abroad
THE NUMBER of patients flying overseas for private medical treatment has quadrupled in four years as NHS waiting times reach record levels.
Long waits for surgery such as hip, knee and cataract operations, together with the growing cost of dental care, are fuelling the rise, experts say.
The figures, calculated for the Sunday Express by the Office for National Statistics, cover the period up to September last year. Assuming the trend continued through the final quarter, as many as 211,000 people will have travelled abroad for treatment in 2017 compared with just 48,000 in 2014. NHS waiting times are
now the longest they have been for almost a decade, with more than 400,000 people waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment – an increase of 60,000 since 2014.
Eastern Europe is the biggest draw with approximately 18,000 visiting Poland last year – a 50 per cent increase on 2014 – many for plastic or eye surgery.
Meanwhile UK visitors to Hungary, where dentistry, fertility services and cosmetic surgery are popular, increased more than threefold to around 19,000 last year.
However, the fastest growing eastern European destination is Bulgaria, which saw a sixfold increase in UK health tourists to 6,000 last year compared with 1,000 in 2015.
Experts say this is because the country has the most affordable and swiftest access to private health care in the EU. Consultant appointments can be made in a couple of hours and results are usually given the same day. Private hospitals also offer the latest minimally invasive surgical techniques, some of which are not yet widely available in the UK.
These include minimally invasive “anterior approach” hip replacement, which involves a 2½ inch incision and does not require cutting the muscles – leading to a recovery time of two to three weeks.
This is in contrast to a conventional 12-inch incision, including muscle detachment, and a recovery time of up to seven weeks.
UK health tourists to France and Germany increased threefold over the past three years to approximately 9,500 and 5,500 respectively. Many of them went seeking hip or knee replacements.
Spain saw a dramatic tenfold increase to approximately 9,500 over the same period, many of whom were there for fertility treatment.
Increasing demand has spawned the growth of a new industry of health tourist operators such as Bulgaria Medical Travel Partner, based in the country’s capital, Sofia.
It offers patients a round-the-clock concierge service and arranges hotel and hospital bookings for orthopaedic surgery, dental treatment and health screening.
One of its patients, 50-year-old IT consultant Lee Kane, from Fife, had pioneering dental implant surgery after being told an operation in the UK might not be successful and would cost him over two-thirds more than his treatment there.
Father-of-one Mr Kane said: “It’s unbelievable. I am so happy I want to break down in tears.” In another case, Alan Baker, a 65-year-old mining project manager from Wheatley, Nottinghamshire, had travelled to Macedonia and paid £3,300 for a six-week course of radiotherapy for prostate cancer which would have cost him £35,000 as a private patient in the UK.
Vesselina Dimova, founder of Bulgaria Medical Travel Partner, said: “It is important that UK health tourists check out the credentials of the clinicians wherever they go for treatment. Rogue operators can work in any country, including the UK.
“Our team has handpicked medical staff and patients are given full credentials of their clinician before they book as well as clear terms and conditions prior to travel.
“Patients are accompanied by a personal assistant, available daily, who can translate and provide emotional and logistic support.”
Kailash Chand, honorary vice president of the British Medical Association, warned that if complications did occur abroad, the NHS was often left to clear up the problems.
He said: “It’s very sad we have brought the NHS to its knees, getting rid of staff while the workload has gone through the roof, which has fuelled the rise in patients going abroad for treatment.
“We need to sort out our own house. In many cases patients who travel abroad for treatment come back to the NHS for aftercare or complications which are harder to deal with when doctors here do not know what has gone on.”
The Department of Health said last night: “There are many reasons why people seek treatment abroad and the total number who did so last year is less than one per cent of those who began treatment in the UK.”
‘It is important to check credentials. Rogue operators can work anywhere’