Medical Tourism Is a Million-Dollar Industry in the UK

According to a major study conducted by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and York University, medical tourism is a lucrative source of income for the National Health Service (NHS) in England.

This contradicts the claim made by health secretary Jeremy Hunt that foreigners are abusing the system and cost the NHS up to £2bn a year. The study shows that more people go to hospitals abroad than arrive in the UK for their care: 63,000 people from the UK travelled overseas for medical care in 2010, while 52,000 medical tourists travelled to the UK for treatment.

In an article published in The Guardian, Sarah Boseley dissects the numbers to paint a picture of just how lucrative the medical tourism industry is. Here are some highlights:

“Eighteen hospitals – those deemed most likely to be making money from overseas patients – earned £42m in 2010, according to researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and York University. Medical tourists spent an estimated £219m on hotels, restaurants, shopping and transport in the UK.

Some NHS hospitals earn substantial sums of money from medical tourists and others could join them in doing so. They used freedom of information requests to obtain figures from 18 hospitals. Great Ormond Street children’s hospital earned £20.7m from foreign patients in 2010-11; Kings earned £7.9m and the Royal Brompton earned £7.4m.

People from the UK travelled abroad for procedures they could not get on the NHS or where the waiting lists were too long. The study looked at those travelling for fertility treatment, bariatric surgery (to reduce the stomach size in obese patients) and cosmetic surgery.”

The study is published in the open access journal Public Library of Science (PLoS) One. You can also read the original article here.