Health tourists flock to India
KATE FOSTER
December 10, 2006
A SCOTS travel firm set up to organise stag parties is sending health tourists to the Third World for cheap, fast surgery they cannot get in the UK.
Globe Health Tours - which usually provides entertainment for stag weekends - has already sent 30 patients to hospitals in India, where private surgery is a fraction of the price charged by UK clinics.
Patients, who combine surgery with an exotic holiday, travel for dental implants, hip and knee replacements and cosmetic surgery at hospitals in Dehli, Mumbai, Kerala, Goa, Bangalore and Ghana.
NHS waiting lists for some procedures are still up to six months and private clinics in the UK charge pay-as-you-go patients up to £10,000 for hip or knee replacements. But those prepared to travel to India can have the same operations for less than £3,500.
Globe Health Tours, whose staff normally organise entertainment ranging from clay pigeon shooting to entry to lap-dancing clubs, began sending patients abroad 12 months ago.
Sholto Ramsay, a director of the firm, said: "If you are getting dental implants, for example, it's one day of surgery then the next day you have pretty much got over it and you can have a few days of holiday. It suits women who want cosmetic treatment such as a tummy tuck or a nose job and don't want people to know about it."
Margaret Davidson, chief executive of the Scotland Patients' Association, said: "If patients want to travel abroad for treatment, and they feel they are safe doing so, and they can afford to, then they should do so. It is just unfair that they are not able to get that service in the UK."
When doctors told Stuart Shaw he needed a hip replacement he was faced with a six-month wait or a £9,000 bill from a private hospital. Suffering excruciating pain, the 67-year-old decided to travel to India instead. He paid less than £4,000 for the operation, including his travel expenses and five weeks in hospital.
(Excerpts)
*****