| Belgium is now leading destination for European surgery vacations |
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| Tuesday, 22 August 2006 | |
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Companies that specialise in arranging for patients to travel abroad report demand for operations in Belgium has overtaken that for the established European favourites such as France and Germany. The growing willingness of patients to travel for surgery highlights the British government’s failure to rebuild confidence in the NHS despite record spending over the last 9 years. “Belgium is undoubtedly the first choice for people in the UK,” said Keith Pollard, director of Treatment Abroad, a company that matches patients with overseas healthcare providers. Pollard said that of between 1,500 and 2,000 inquiries each month, 65% of cosmetic surgery patients and 82% of those seeking other operations named Belgium as their preference. Charles Seadon, director of Direct Healthcare International, Britain’s largest operator in the Belgian market, said it treated 1,400 patients a year, compared with 400 three years ago. “Fifteen years ago, if you had asked a chief executive where he wanted to have his heart surgery, he would have said Switzerland or Germany because that’s where the most skilled surgeons were. Today it’s Belgium,” said Seadon. The European Court of Justice has ruled that patients have a right to reimbursement by their own government for treatment abroad if they face “undue delay” at home, although this has yet to be defined. |
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