India wins UK’s heart

Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), now facing mounting waiting lists of patients suffering from heart and lung elements, is now considering a new plan to fly them to India for surgery quickly and at almost half the cost, Sunday Times newspaper reported on June 29, 2003. The NHS chiefs are currently in talks with the medical authorities in India to consider the proposals in a desperate bid to cut waiting lists, the report added.

A Department of Health spokesman, however, said patients would only be sent to India in exceptional circumstances. Dr. Yaswant Mehrotra of Apollo hospitals network, told the paper: "we expect negotiations to work out within months. Once this arrangement is in place, patients on British waiting lists can be transferred to Apollo’s cardiac, orthopaedic and ophthalmology departments. The facility will be available not only for Non-Resident Indians any patient wishing an early appointment and treatment." "From our point of view there is a lot of money in it," he said. The Indian operations would cost around 3,000 pounds – half the price of surgery in Britain – including the cost of the 12,800 km return flight.

More than a million people in the U.K. are currently on the NHS waiting lists. One has to wait up to nine months for a contract operation and six months for heart surgery here. The Government pledged to use private facilities in Britain to break the log-jam in waiting times for routine operations. More than 1,000 British patients had operations abroad last year, including 200 in a trial programme which sent them to France and Germany. If the scheme for operations in Europe proves a success, the NHS patients could soon find themselves sent to Mumbai or Delhi, the report said.

The Confederation of Indian Industry has sent a delegation to Britain to discuss the possibility of British insurance companies recognizing Indian hospitals. The move to ease the burden on the NHS comes despite record the Government increases in health spending but will be an acute embarrassment for the Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, who promised to halt the rise in waiting lists.

Escorts, a premier institute of cardiology, are also interested in exploring the possibility of a tie-up with the NHS. The move of tying up with internationally reputed medical institutions and health care services is a part of the health policy laid down in the last budget. The Finance Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh projected India as an ‘attractive’ health destination with a series of a tax concession for private investors. The private sector, which accounts for about 70 per cent of India’s health care market, welcomed the budget announcement on the grounds that it would boost domestic investment in health care as well as send a signal to foreign investors that India is ready for business.

What makes India an attractive health destination is its relatively cheap health care costs. For instance, a single tooth filling here costs $10 against $300 in the US, while the average cost of a cardiac surgery in any one of India's best hospitals is $4500, far less than what is charged in US." The success rate of cardiac surgery here is almost 98%", says doctor in Chennai. Those with the voluntary health sector, however, are critical of private hospitals, which, they say have only set there sights on making profit." They are not fulfilling their obligations of reserving 20% free beds for the under-privileged," says a doctor. But Dr Mehrotra disagrees." They want us to provide materials & drugs free of cost, in which case it will be impossible for us to break even," he says. And he also rejects the voluntary sector’s view that opening up the health market will not benefit the masses. "Any kind of competition is good. Government hospitals will be forced to tone up once there is competition," he says.