Medical Tourism – U.S News

Medical Tourism | ABC News | Jeff Schult

India: A medical tourism Hub

Cutting edge Travel

Ten years ago if you went abroad to have medical treatment you were probably rich, adventurous and vain, travelling to have a bit of cosmetic touching up away from the prying eyes of your neighbours. Today however the whole business has become far more egalitarian, driven by NHS waiting lists and high prices in the UK private sector. What had been a trickle of hardy souls has become a flood.

In September a report commissioned by Treatment Abroad estimated that 50,000 people now travel from the UK for surgery abroad every year and that the number of foreign clinics and hospitals promoting their services in the UK is over 300. According to Keith Pollard, director of Treatment Abroad, in the past year visits to the site have shot up from 3,000 to 30,000 per month. Today whatever you want done – breast implants, hip replacements, laser eye treatment, tooth implants, heart by-pass – can be found cheaper and faster outside Britain.

And some of the deals on offer are amazing. Currently the best bargain destination is Bulgaria where a package on prostate removal is 82% lower than in the UK. Turkey comes second with major savings in areas such as eye surgery (£562 for a cataract vs. £2,350 in the UK).

Other countries emerging as keen to exploit our growing taste for affordable surgery with dramatically cut price rates include Latvia (£3000 for a hip replacement vs. £8,000) and Poland (£640 for looking into a joint – arthroscopy – vs. £2,400).

But just how safe is it? Certainly the medical profession has viewed this flight of patients away from their services with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. “It can be a lottery,” warns Professor Angus Wallace, professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Nottingham. “I know for a fact that some countries’ technical expertise, levels of medical training, surgical procedures and aftercare are significantly worse than those in UK hospitals.” Other doctors have pointed out that there is usually no insurance or legal come-back if things go wrong and have urged anyone considering travelling abroad to think about the lack of proper follow up when they return.

However such caveats have done little to curb people’s enthusiasm not just for a bargain but an instant one; in fact reports of disasters seem relatively rare. “Patients who have become medical tourists have been extremely positive about their experience and the quality of care that they have received,” says Pollard. Without anything to compare his statement to you might not be convinced but even an impartial organisation, Action for Victims of Medical Accidents has only had reports of a handful of cases.

And it’s not as though UK hospitals are free of risk; our rate of

“hospital acquired infections” runs at about 10%; one of the highest in Europe. By way of contrast, one medical tourism firm has taken over 2,500 people to France for hip and knee surgery over the last few years without a single case of post-operative infection. Patients returning from treatment in India, for instance, describe how infections are rare and how rooms are cleaned three times a day. What’s more, the doctors treating them often work in UK hospitals as well.

 

In fact as the number of patients returning from successful trips abroad increases, the dire warnings about the potential dangers of foreign treatment are beginning to sound hollow. It is increasingly the NHS that is looking slow, dirty and inefficient by comparison. Some patients want to know why the standards of care they find abroad aren’t the norm in the UK. “I was phoned several times by my surgeon after the operation to check I was OK,” reported one woman, back from Cyprus. “How many times does an NHS consultant do that?” Others say they feel let down by the NHS in their hour of need. Having paid for it all their lives they are then driven away by the lack of affordable or available treatment when they need it most.

“I’m saving the NHS money by going,” remarked one pensioner on her way to France. However she may yet get her money refunded, thanks to the EU.

Earlier this year the European Court of Justice ruled on the case of Yvonne Watts, an elderly patient who paid nearly £4000 for a hip replacement in France. Her local PCT refused to repay her so she took the case to Europe. The court decided that patients have the right to be reimbursed for treatment abroad when they face “undue delay”.

And that is the key phrase. It’s not clear yet how long “undue delay” is. The latest NHS pledge is to cut the time from a patient’s first visit to a GP to having surgery to 18 weeks by the end of 2008. If a wait of over 18 weeks triggers payment, medical tourism could receive an enormous boost. Many observers believe that the NHS won’t have the resources to meet the growing demand for orthopedic, obesity and heart by-pass surgery.

Even without NHS payments the growth looks like being unstoppable. Ten years ago there was just one cosmetic surgery clinic in Prague for foreigners, now there are 100. Countries like India, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore all have government backed programmes to encourage health tourism.

India is building new hospitals just to cope with flood of visitors, who will bring an estimated £2 billon into the country by 2012. Singapore attracts more than 200,000 a year and Thailand 600,000. In Bangkok’s International Medical Centre the signs offering assistance are written in 26 languages.

Medical tourism has grown on the back of cheap flights and the internet. Patients can as easily send their records and photos of scans and X-rays to Tunisia as to Torquay and many people are used to searching out the best buy on-line. Cosmetic surgery is still a major driver of the business which is why we’ve devoted more space to it in this report. In the following pages you should be able to find the information to make your medical tourism trip that much easier and safer.

UK girl seeks treatment in China

 A British couple is hoping revolutionary cerebral palsy treatment in China will help their daughter lead a more normal life.

Kishor Tahiliani and his wife, Priti, want eight-year-old Vaishnavi, also known as Shonia, to have the stem cell treatment.

The treatment is not yet available in the UK, but a hospital in China has made a breakthrough in treating cerebral palsy by injecting stem cells into the spinal cord fluid which then flow directly into the brain.

The treatment at Tiantan Puhua Neurosurgical Hospital in Beijing has already helped 19-year-old Gabor Bocskai from Hungary to walk, sit up, swim, concentrate for longer, see better and speak.

The couple, who live in Bournemouth, Dorset, need to raise £18,000 for two months’ treatment in China.

When Shonia was born, doctors had given up hope and told her parents that, if she lived, she would never walk or talk, but her parents are hopeful and say she can smile, show happiness and respond to them and she is trying to formulate words.

Mr Tahiliani, 34, who works in hotel management, said: “This is the best treatment for her. There are cerebral palsy children who were totally blind and now they can see, that’s in Mexico.

“My wife spoke to an American woman. They were crying on the phone, her child is able to do what a normal child does.

“He used to get fits before, all the epilepsy fits have gone, he was unable to walk and he is walking now.

“There are so many children who have improved. It’s amazing really.”

Until recently there has been no medical treatment for cerebral palsy, which is caused by poor oxygen supply to the brain before, during or immediately after birth.

The treatment in China uses stem cells, taken from the umbilical cords of healthy babies, which develop into new nerve cells and repair some of the brain damage.

Shonia will then need physiotherapy and speech therapy to help her learn how to hold her neck, sit or stand alone and speak.

Airlines risk ballooning frequent-flyer payout

Sunday May 13, 10:05 am ET

Reuters Photo: An American Airlines Boeing 757 takes off from Dallas / Fort Worth international Airport in Texas at sunset February 19, 2007.

By Chris Reiter

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bennett Porter, a globe-trotting Internet marketing executive, poses a big problem for U.S. airlines.The New York-based traveler has amassed more than 1 million frequent flyer miles with American Airlines, and still others with additional carriers. She is one of a growing band of customers who plan to redeem those miles for free flights.

Frequent flyer reward schemes have ballooned over the years and accumulating points has become as common as buying a carton of milk. Carriers now risk paying a high price for the glut.

Airlines have awarded more than 19 trillion frequent flyer miles over the past 25 years — roughly equivalent to circling the globe 760 million times — and more than 14 trillion of those miles are unredeemed. The rate of awards is increasing annually, according to frequent flyer site WebFlyer.

While many of those miles may never be swapped for trips or merchandise and they expire more quickly than before, that overhang of unredeemed miles represents a risk for airlines.

AMR Corp. (NYSE:AMR – News), parent of American Airlines, which operates the world’s largest frequent-flyer program, carried a $1.6 billion liability on its books at the end of 2006, about $100 million more than a year earlier and up from $976 million in 2000.

Free travel awards represented 7.5 percent of American’s passengers in 2006, compared to 7.2 percent in 2005, according to company filings.

Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE:DAL – News) expected to award about 8 million free trips at the end of 2006, a million more than in 2005. The No. 3 U.S. carrier increased its liability at the end of last year to $887 million from $607 million a year earlier.

Bankrupt Northwest Airlines Corp. (Other OTC:NWACQ.PK – News) increased its frequent flyer liability to $269 million at the end of 2006, up from $248 million in 2005 and $215 million in 2004.

With planes fuller than ever, granting free trips could displace paying passengers, while unsettled U.S. consumers may be ready to cash in those miles to save money as the economy shows signs of slowing.

“The airlines just can’t handle that level of reward redemption,” said Rick Ferguson, editorial director at loyalty-program consulting firm Colloquy. “The liability’s a big problem.”

MILES GLUT

After the September 11, 2001, attacks sent the airline industry into a decline, carriers began awarding more and more frequent-flyer miles in order to encourage customers to fly. In addition, credit cards and other award schemes have allowed consumers to accumulate miles by buying anything from sliced bread to gasoline.

With the growing supply of frequent-flyer miles and the relative scarcity of available seats, airlines risk a devaluation of their loyalty programs.

“The risk is that these points become perceived to be less valuable,” said Andrew Watterson, a director in the aviation practice of consulting firm Oliver Wyman. “They have to mitigate this.”

Airlines have reacted by offering other alternatives to redeem miles by swapping points for merchandise like an iPod or trading for gift cards through sites like points.com.

But despite the liabilities and risk, the programs are a valuable part of an airline’s business.

“It’s so important for us,” said Billy Sanez, a spokesman for American Airlines. “The mileage program is one of the top-three reasons why people fly with us.”

“The liability is part of having a program,” he said.

Even with the average consumer belonging to multiple award programs, they still have a marked effect on buying behavior.

Porter says she has been swayed by frequent-flyer schemes.

“It does make a difference in the way that I fly,” said Porter, who used a chunk of miles to plan her December 2005 wedding in Belize. “I definitely think twice about booking a flight that’s not on American.”

 

Birmingham Hip Resurfacing operation in India

Mr. Henry Stevens is a professional polo umpire, horse trainer and polo manager who lives south of London. He had been suffering from severe pain and lack of mobility in his right hip, making it at times, impossible for him to “swing a leg” over a horse — an obvious requirement for his profession.

Through a series of x-rays, it was shown that his hip joint had deteriorated, yet the hip bone was “excellent” making him an ideal candidate for the “Birmingham Hip Resurfacing” operation. The NHS told him he would have to wait 12 to 18 months for the hip operation; private treatment costs were estimated at £10,000, whereas in India he had to pay just £4,000 with no waiting time.

Mr.Stevens contacted Wockhardt Hospitals in Mumbai, for his treatment in India.  Wockhardt Hospitals operates a chain of super speciality hospitals,  with international accreditation by Joint Commission International.

Mr Stevens said:

“The main objective of our visit here was to get the best possible medical attention which means the best possible surgeon and the best possible nursing, physio-rehab and overall hospital care. The second requirement was to find the best medical services at a cost we could afford. Thirdly, we needed to schedule the procedure for a very specific time — the time between the two polo seasons: October.  All of the medical attention received has exceeded our expectations. Dr. Malhan is not only the skilled surgeon we knew he would be, but he instils in us total confidence and also has a personality (and a sense of humour) to delight. We are blessed with him.”

Patient story supplied by Wockhardt Hospitals, Mumbai, India.

Below is a video clip of a patient traveling to India for surgery. Planet Hospital was the facilitator.