Indian doctors are touting for British patients at a major 'medical tourism' exhibition in London this weekend, urging people to swap NHS waiting lists for a holiday of 'sun, sea and surgery'.
Around 50 exhibitors, including an eye hospital from Kerala and a heart and lung institute from New Delhi, are showcasing their services at the India Medical Tourism EXPO '06, at London's Olympia centre, which finishes this evening after three days. Up to 7,000 visitors are expected, including hundreds of British GPs, who, the organisers say, are encouraging their patients to travel for operations that aren't available on the NHS.
'There are an estimated 1 million people waiting for treatment on the NHS in the UK, but the price of treatment in India is one tenth of what it costs in private hospitals in the UK,' said Brasant Saha, the event's organiser. 'Heart surgery can cost £20,000 in the UK, but £3,000 in India - even with travel and accommodation, that's a great saving.'
India's medical tourism industry has boomed over the past few years, attracting 150,000 foreign patients in 2005, including 700 Britons. Medical visas for India have been available since November, making it quicker and easier to get treated, and the Indian government predicts it will be a £2bn industry by 2012.
The exhibition is part of a growing worldwide trend. Eastern European countries in particular are promoting themselves as medical tourism destinations, with treatment typically two thirds cheaper than in the UK. Ryanair says many of the 1.6 million passengers who fly on its routes to Poland each year travel for dental work and minor cosmetic surgery, and expects its new route to Balaton in Hungary to be profitable partly thanks to demand from medical tourists.
But are foreign hospitals up to British standards? The British Medical Association shies away from condemning foreign treatment but points to Foreign Office advice warning travellers to carry out detailed checks on the hygiene standards, doctors' qualifications and mortality rates at the hospital they are visiting.
