Friday, November 02, 2007

UK: Record Numbers Go Abroad for Health Treatment

From the online version of the UK's Daily Mail:

Record numbers of Britons are traveling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.

And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" will fly as far as Malaysia and South Africa for major surgery to avoid long waiting lists and the rising threat of superbugs, according to a new report.

The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration of often waiting months for operations are fueling the increasing trend.

Patients needing major heart surgery, hip operations and cataracts are using the internet to book operations to be carried out thousands of miles away.

India is the most popular destination for surgery, followed by Hungary, Turkey, Germany, Malaysia, Poland and Spain. But dozens more countries are attracting health tourists.

People with even a few Euros to spare are going overseas in an attempt to receive better and faster surgeries.

Apparently the lines are so long for people needing heart surgery, cancer surgery and the like that folks die before it's their turn under the National Healthcare System.

This is what Hillary and many others in the Democratic party desire for the US health care system?

Have you ever dealt with the inefficiencies of Social Security, the IRS, your state's department of motor vehicles, etc?

Now translate that type of apathy and attitude to trying to get help for a serious illness.


I'm up to 1433 words on my NaNoWriMo novel as of yesterday. Only 48,567 more words to go before 11:59pm, November 30th. (I need to average about 1667 words per day)

4 comments:

none said...

I agree. I've never seen the government handle anything with efficiency.

Travis Cody said...

Don't you hate to count words when you're writing. But I guess that IS the point of NaNo.

Keep up the pace! Fine drivel waits for no man!

Sorry...bad joke there.

Qtpies7 said...

That is interesting. Why doesn't the media pick this up? If the majority of the US citizens would SEE the truth, they would not be voting for it. Sure, EVERYONE will get healthcare, but will you be alive when its your turn?

I haven't seen your entry for Quelf.... don't you want to play it after all these months of hearing me spout its wonderfulness? LOl

Norma said...

Good luck on NaNo. I tried that a few years ago and it's like I froze. Didn't know your wrote novels too--what a multi-tasker.