Press Articles
Record Numbers Go Abroad for Treatment
28 October 2007
Record numbers of Britons are flying abroad for medical treatment to escape NHS waiting lists and the rising threat of hospital superbugs.
Thousands of "health tourists" are going as far as India, Malaysia and South Africa for major operations – such is their despair over the quality of health services.
The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration with NHS waiting lists are fuelling the increasing trend.
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New Heart Op Dramatically Reduces Pain – Mini Bypass by Dr. Rehan
10 December 2010
Thousands of people could benefit from a new operating technique which is believed to halve the pain normally associated with open-heart surgery.
The so-called mini-bypass is done through a cut in the chest which is three times smaller than usual.
By causing far less trauma to the patient, surgeons say the recovery time is significantly reduced.
Within a day of the operation, patients can begin their recovery on paracetamol instead of the morphine painkillers they would usually need.
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Wide Awake Heart Surgery 'Reduces Risks' – Awake Bypass by Dr. Vivek Jawali
10 December 2010
Surgeons have carried out open-heart surgery on a patient who was wide awake throughout the procedure - giving hope of reducing the risks of complex operations.
Catholic priest Father Bolmax Periera had an epidural injection into his spine so he could not feel anything below his neck.
But he could sense surgeons pushing and pulling inside his chest cavity and hear them talking about the operation's progress.
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Have Sickness Must Travel
03 December 2006
Fed up with NHS waiting lists, dirty hospitals and shoddy services, hundreds of British taxpayers are travelling to Europe and beyond for operations...
As a GP in Kenya, Premhar Shah of the Medical Tourist Company used to shuttle patients to South Africa and India. "When I came here [the UK], I read about long waiting lists and thought I should give the business a try," he says. "People here are frustrated. Even in Kenya, if I wanted a blood test done I could get it in hours. But British patients always ask, 'How many days will my blood test take?'"...
A constant refrain of health tourists is that they have been driven to it. "From my first visit to my GP to seeing the consultant took eight months," says Bob Gallagher [client of The Medical Tourist Company], 56, who went to India for cardiac ablation. "It was £2,000 rather than £12,000 in the UK. "Gallagher's ablation became open-heart surgery. "Sitting in India, I thought, 'Who do I trust?' Not the NHS. Easy choice." So he had the surgery and returned home happy. "They discovered a problem that hadn't even been picked up here," he says. "The surgeon phoned me at home. Can you see someone from the NHS doing that?" He has now managed to get his operation covered by travel insurance, but maintains he would have tried reparations from the NHS. "They need to be embarassed." Seething beneath almost every British medical tourist's story is a resentment towards the NHS for its lack of provision in the hour of need.
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Health tourists sign up for sun, sea and surgery
25 February 2006
Dr Premhar Shah, of The Medical Tourist Company, says that while an eight-hour flight for treatment might seem daunting, India offers excellent value and high-quality facilities. "We prefer to send health tourists to India because the standard of care is so high," he says. "Also, there is no language barrier - all the doctors we use speak English."
Dr Shah's company, set up last year, has already sent 40 patients to India, to hospitals in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. It offers hip and knee replacements, cosmetic surgery, dental treatments, weight-reduction programmes, corrective eye surgery, and even some heart procedures.
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Man travels to India for heart op
Read about the experience of Mike Cooke on BBC News, a customer of The Medical Tourist Company, in which we organised heart care for him at one of our five star hospitals in India.
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Medical Tourist Company in The Sun
A HEART patient faced with a year-long wait for an NHS op or paying £8,500 to go private flew to India instead - and saved £6,000.
Mike Cooke, 59, paid £2,300 to fly to Bombay with his wife and have surgery there. Dad-of-two Mike, 59, of Diptford, Devon, said yesterday: "I feel great. We had a luxurious suite with room and laundry service. It was like a fave-star hotel."
Mike booked the Op after surfing the internet. An NHS spokesman said: "Capacity within the NHS is increasing."
Outsourcing Your Heart - Elective Surgery in India? Medical Tourism is Booming
With no health insurance and lacking $60,000 for a badly needed operation, Steinard, a 59-year-old Floridian, hopped onto the Internet and then onto a plane to India ... 8,300 MILES LATER, IT'S FIXED ... found out that he was closer to a heart attack than he had imagined. Steinard had a double bypass last week in New Delhi... in the U.S. insurers negotiate discounts, but the uninsured pay retail rates for medical procedures.
India's, like its other outsourcing segments, is booming. Apollo Hospitals, one of the largest private chains in the world with 46 hospitals in three countries, and Wockhardt Hospitals Group, which has eight hospitals in India, are working through agencies like IndUShealth, PlanetHospital and The Medical Tourist Co. in Britain to build business across the West.
Treatment Abroad endorses local agency
The Medical Tourist Company, an agency based in Harrow, Greater London, is the first UK group to be endorsed by medical tourism information website Treatment Abroad’s Code of Practice for Medical Tourism.
The code provides reassurance on key issues that concern patients considering treatment overseas by endorsing clinics, hospitals and intermediaries that meet the standards of practice. It focuses on the business practices of medical tourism.
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Other press and useful articles
Other articles on medical tourism can be found in the following publications:
- Going Abroad to Beat the Queues, Your Magazine, Issue 039, June 17-30, 2008
- The Medical Tourist Company of UK will help you get better, The Magazine, Third Edition, December 2006.