Can our beloved NHS BE SAVED?

With waiting lists for surgery reaching new highs, we investigate the lengths patients are  going to in order to receive treatment

-  ANDY BUCKWELL AND CHARLOTTE OWEN

W e’ve all experienced it. Having to wait weeks for an appointment with our GP, or waiting even longer to see a

dentist. But for many, it is the wait times for surgery that are the most dire.

The number of desperate patients forced to ditch the NHS and pay for medical treatment abroad has risen by a third since lockdown. Leading clinics across Europe are now focusing on attracting a new wave of NHS exiles as demand rockets among British patients for hip and knee replacements, cataract surgery and cardiology treatments.

Almost 350,000 UK residents went abroad for medical treatment in 2022, compared with 248,000 in 2019 and 120,000 in 2015. At home, the number waiting more than a year for elective (non-urgent) surgery has risen from 1,000 in 2019 to 400,000 in 2022. A further 1.5 million people were waiting for diagnostic tests.

Keith Pollard, editor of the International Medical Travel Journal, said clinics in Lithuania, Poland, Croatia and France were seeing a huge upturn in Britons seeking elective surgery. He said, ‘Three or four years ago very few Brits would go abroad for elective or NHS-type surgery. But what we are seeing over the past 12 to 18 months is down to NHS waiting lists.