
The Treatment Abroad Group UK: Medical tourism survey
Medical tourism is defined as the act of patients traveling outside their country in order to undergo a medical treatment. Some countries like Thailand have been doing this for years, while newcomers like Malaysia, India, South Africa and Singapore are steadily catching up.
In the USA there are millions (45 million Americans to be exact) who have no insurance. 1.7 million people die each year because they lack insurance coverage and do not receive the medical treatment they need. Still, there are millions more tired of waiting in line for their chance for necessary healthcare. These and other issues make exploring medical tourism so worthwhile.
The Treatment Abroad group of UK based medical and health travel information sites has completed the first in depth survey of medical tourists. It is based on the experiences of 650 patients who have travelled for treatment. The highly encouraging data from this survey is the level of savings achieved and the level of satisfaction of those who traveled from the UK. Medical travellers completed an extensive post-visit online survey run by an external research company.
Although 60% of total travellers were male, this reduced to 8% for those travelling for cosmetic surgery. For 83%, the purpose of the trip is that they wanted to save on the cost of treatment in the UK.
On the total cost of treatment, 11% of those going for dental treatment spent £10,000 or more, and 9% going for elective surgery spent £10,000 or more.
17% of all travellers said they saved more than £10,000 compared to UK cost. Of the nine out of ten who were satisfied, 74% were very satisfied and 16 % quite satisfied with their experience of treatment abroad.
97% stated that they would definitely or probably go for treatment abroad again.
96% of would definitely or probably go back to the same doctor/dentist/hospital/
96% would recommend treatment abroad to a friend or relativePrices for hip replacement abroad
The table below, extracted from the Treatment Abroad PriceWatch Survey 2007 compares prices for hip replacement overseas and also provides an indication of the package saving (allowing for travel and accommodation costs).
Country | Procedure price | Procedure saving | Travel cost | Hotel nights | Hotel per night | Hotel cost | Total price | Package saving |
Belgium | £5,585 | 30% | £60 | 7 | £45 | £315 | £5,960 | 26% |
Bulgaria | £2,000 | 87% | £160 | 7 | £45 | £315 | £2,475 | 69% |
Cyprus | £4,100 | 49% | £145 | 7 | £40 | £280 | £4,525 | 43% |
France | £5,689 | 29% | £60 | 7 | £60 | £420 | £6,169 | 23% |
Germany | £5,296 | 34% | £165 | 7 | £60 | £420 | £5,881 | 26% |
Hungary | £4,450 | 44% | £100 | 7 | £40 | £280 | £4,830 | 40% |
India | £3,547 | 56% | £350 | 7 | £30 | £210 | £4,107 | 49% |
Latvia | £3,924 | 51% | £210 | 7 | £20 | £140 | £4,274 | 47% |
Malaysia | £2,205 | 72% | £720 | 7 | £40 | £280 | £3,205 | 60% |
Spain | £5,695 | 29% | £100 | 7 | £55 | £385 | £6,180 | 23% |
Tunisia | £3,000 | 63% | £190 | 7 | £45 | £315 | £3,505 | 56% |
Turkey | £4,725 | 41% | £155 | 7 | £35 | £245 | £5,125 | 36% |
Venezuela | £5,971 | 25% | £530 | 7 | £50 | £350 | £6,851 | 14% |
UK | £8,000 | £8,000 |
1 comment:
You should check out http://www.dentalholiday.co.uk for low cost dental treatment abroad.
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