• Here is a bird’s eye view of how the National Health Service works in the United Kingdom, its shortcomings, which countries do UK patients currently go for treatment and what India can do to attract more patients from U.K.

The National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom, including England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, is the country’s largest employer. The publicly funded healthcare system was established in 1948 with the belief that services should be delivered for free. Services such as consultations with GPs (family doctors) and specialists, emergency treatment are free.

In England, some NHS patients pay for prescription charges but many patients, for example those under the age of 16, over the age of 60, or those with a medical condition are exempt from paying for prescriptions.

The NHS is largely funded by taxes and National Insurance (NI) contributions. NI is a form of social security and is a tax on earnings and self-employed profits.

The NHS has over 1.5 million employees, including those employed in hospitals, primary care (first point of contact), mental health, and ambulance services. According to the NHS website, the maximum waiting time for non-urgent treatment by specialist medics is 18 weeks from the day an appointment is booked for a patient through the NHS electronic referral service.

However, it can take a very long time to get an initial appointment. I work for the NHS’ Memory Service in a town in England’s East Midlands region, and the current waiting time for patients in my service to get an initial appointment for memory assessment and screening for dementia is around 7-8 months from the date they were referred by their GP or any other healthcare professional. For example, if a patient was referred to my service in January 2025, they would most likely not be seen by a healthcare practitioner before August this year.

The long NHS waiting lists mean medical tourism has become not just a fad but sometimes a necessity for UK residents. People fly to various countries from the UK seeking medical treatment, dental procedures, hair transplants, cosmetic and cardiac surgery. Private treatment in the UK is exorbitant and beyond the reach of many.

Medical tourism has huge cost saving potential, but the standard of facilities and treatment can vary. Poland, Hungary, Spain, and Turkey are among some countries that are popular destinations for those in search of healing.

A look on the Internet at a website combining treatment and tourism in Turkey is enlightening. Asthetica.com offers rhinoplasty, liposuction, bariatric surgery, and hair transplants, among other treatments. They promise to take care of airline tickets, transfers, accommodation, travel visas, and aftercare while also promising excursion and travel. 

According to an article in The Bulletin of the Royal College of Surgeons of England published online on 31^st August 2024 and titled The Two Faces of Medical Tourism: A Journey to Turkey, the contrast in prices is quite glaring. A hair transplant in the UK would have set someone back by approximately £8,000 but in Turkey the same procedure, including four nights stay in a four-star hotel, airport transfers, breakfast and accommodation with a few extras would be around £1,500. The article says that while somebody who opted for a hair transplant had a fairly pleasant experience, another person who opted for a facelift was not satisfied by the experience.

This is where India could step in and become a popular destination for UK residents wishing to seek medical treatment outside their country. Procedures in India are significantly cheaper than in the UK and India also has shorter waiting times for non-urgent procedures. Costs of procedures in India could reportedly be around 70 per cent lower than in the UK. For instance, if a hip replacement surgery in India costs around Rs 5,00,000 on average, the same can cost around £15,000 in a private hospital in the UK. In Turkey, it may cost around £11,000. So, in India, costs are significantly lower than even in Turkey. 

Indian medics and healthcare staff are top notch, and the country is also a popular destination for alternative medicine therapies. Indian doctors are reportedly the largest group of foreign doctors in the UK, so the professionalism and proficiency of Indian medics is known to UK residents. Many doctors working in India have received medical training in the UK, so they are aware of international practices and the expectations of patients who may come in from the UK with regards to communication, etc.

India also boasts of advanced healthcare infrastructure and there are clinics as well as hospitals in all the metropolises that are equipped with the best technology and facilities.

To make the patient experience seamless, India should focus on infrastructural development, simplify the visa process for medical tourists and raise awareness through marketing campaigns on what is available in the country. India already has a significant number of medical tourists from Bangladesh and other neighboring countries. Though it does receive medical tourists from the UK, India can try and capture the market from the other European countries visited by UK residents. It already has a lot to offer in terms of its culture and heritage.

Why not make the whole process more patient-friendly so that legacy and remedy can be rolled into one package for growing numbers from the UK

The author is a freelance journalist. She worked for the editorial departments of The Statesman and The Telegraph in Kolkata for five years and written articles as a freelancer for the Economic Times, The Hindu, The Statesman, The Telegraph, Deccan Herald, The Tribune (Chandigarh), Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Business Line, etc. Currently she works as an Administration Assistant for the NHS in England.

To read all articles by author

Also read

1. 22 Ideas to promote Medical Tourism to India

2. Sonia Shenoy video on Medical Tourism

3. List of Institutions in India where you can learn Yoga

4. Poomully Ayurveda – Home to Pristine Ayurveda

5. To read over 200 Travelogues on India

6. To see over 15,000 pictures on India classified by State and Theme

7. NHS site

8. NHS owes much to the Indian Diaspora

9. India UK FTA