What socialized health care looks like in the U.K.
“But everybody gets access.”
Record numbers go abroad for health treatment with 70,000 escaping NHS
dailymail.co.uk
Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.
And by the end of the decade 200,000 “health tourists” will fly as far as Malaysa and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.
The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration of often waiting months for operations are fuelling the increasing trend.
Patients needing major heart surgery, hip operations and cataracts are using the internet to book operations to be carried out thousands of miles away.
ndia is the most popular destination for surgery, followed by Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, Poland and Spain. But dozens more countries are attracting health tourists.
Research by the Treatment Abroad website shows that Britons have travelled to 112 foreign hospitals, based in 48 countries, to find safe, affordable treatment.
Almost all of those who had received treatment abroad said they would do the same again, with patients pointing out that some hospitals in India had screening policies for the superbug MRSA that have yet to be introduced in this country.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said the figures were a “terrible indictment” of government policies that were undermining the efforts of NHS staff to provide quality services.
The findings come amid further revelations about the Government’s mishandling of NHS policies, and ahead of official statistics that will embarrass ministers. (more…)
As many of these folks know, there are some great risks when trusting a doctor in a country who may not have strict medical malpractice laws. However, when you are sick and tired there is no telling to what great lengths a person will go for treatment.
While it may be true that our current system is not the greatest as it can be, the fact of the matter is that folks from all around the world still come here for both treatment and training. Should every person in America have health care coverage? Not if government is managing it as demonstrated by this trend in the U.K.
