Saturday, October 27, 2007

New Horizons


The Daily Telegraph reveals what may be the fastest-growing trend in Britain, traveling abroad for medical care:

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.

More than 70,000 Britons will have treatment abroad this year – a figure that is forecast to rise to almost 200,000 by the end of the decade. Patients needing major heart surgery, hip operations and cataracts are using the internet to book operations to be carried out thousands of miles away.
About 60 million people reside in the United Kingdom. I don't know what the figure is for United States citizens seeking medical treatment in other countries, but a proportional number would be over 400,000 350,000 Americans traveling abroad for medical care today and almost 1,000,000 within a decade. The dental care crisis in Britain is even more severe.

[Emphasis mine]

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