Britain to move EU over India's medical outsourcing call

Posted : Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:15:01 GMT
By : Dipankar De Sarkar
Category : Health
News Alerts by Email ( click here )
Health News | Home
London, Dec 14 - Britain has agreed to take up with its European partners India's strong and persistent objections to a rule that discourages healthcare outsourcing to India, a senior British trade official said after Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath raised the issue once again at a business meeting here.

Current European Union regulations limit referrals to hospitals within three hours of flying time - in other words, a doctor referring a European patient to a hospital for subsidised treatment has to make sure that it is located within three hours of flying time. Any destination beyond three hours means the patient will have to pay for the treatment.

Kamal Nath, who says India offers world-class health services at a fraction of the cost in wealthy countries, has urged the EU to amend the law, arguing it is a protectionist measure that is damaging trade and harms patients' interests.

Britain's flagship National Health Service (NHS), the world's first and still the finest state-subsidised model, has come under mounting financial pressures over the last decade with waiting periods for some treatments, such as for heart conditions, running as long as six months to a year, forcing many patients to turn to expensive private hospitals.

Andrew Cahn, Chief Executive of UK Trade and Investment, an important government agency, said that Britain understands India's concerns.

'Britain recognises the strength of feeling on the Indian side, but we cannot unilaterally resolve the problem. It is something that has to be resolved via Brussels,' Cahn told IANS after a conference of Indian and British business leaders in London Thursday.

'We will certainly be raising the issue in Brussels,' he added.

Earlier, Kamal Nath told the meeting that the three-hour limit was among 'certain archaic practices' existing in both India and Britain but that healthcare outsourcing could be turned into a 'sunrise industry'.

At many previous meetings Kamal Nath has said India offers the answer to the problems Britain is facing over the NHS.

A study by the Confederation of Indian Industry and McKinsey consultants in 2005 estimated healthcare oursourcing could be worth Rs. 100 billion by 2012. Some 150,000 foreigners are said to have visited India for treatment in 2004, with the number rising by 15 percent a year.

India's burgeoning private healthcare sector today offers attractive and cheap packages to foreign patients in an industry dubbed as 'medical tourism' - combining treatment with tourism, health retreats and yoga.

Prices are unbeatable: a heart bypass surgery in India costs around 4,300 pounds, compared to 15,000 pounds in Britain and a cataract operation around 650 pounds compared to 3,000 pounds in Britain.


(c) Indo-Asian News Service

Share/Save/Bookmark

Article : Britain to move EU over India's medical outsourcing call
Print this article
Email this article

Stay Updated
News gadget on your Google homepage
Subscribe to a news feed in Google Reader


Related News

Second twin stirs after successful separation in Australia
Sydney - The second of the Bangladeshi conjoined twins that Australian surgeons separated this week is being brought out of an induced coma. Trishna was the first to be woken and doctors at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital said Friday that her s...

23 per cent of Taiwan city kids have considered suicide
Taipei - Twenty-three per cent of Taiwan's city children have considered suicide due to school pressure and family problems, a survey showed. The Child Welfare League Foundation surveyed 1,547 primary school pupils across Taiwan to find out the diffe...

Police seize illicit medicines from web merchants - Summary
Wiesbaden, Germany/Washington - Police in 24 nations raided illegal internet pharmacies this week, intercepted parcels at mail depots and seized stocks of illicit medicines, German police and US officials said Thursday. The raids, which began Monday,...

Police seize illicit medicines from web merchants in Interpol raids
Wiesbaden, Germany - Police in 24 nations raided illegal internet pharmacies this week, intercepted parcels at mail depots and seized stocks of illicit medicines, German police said Thursday. The raids, which began Monday were aimed at confiscating c...

Child mortality drops in 20th year of rights convention
New York - Child mortality rates have dropped by 28 per cent since the Convention on the Rights of the Child took effect 20 years ago, the UN Children's Fund said Thursday. An estimated 8.8 million children under five died from various diseases in 20...

One twin talking after successful separation in Australia
Sydney - One of the Bangladeshi conjoined twins Australian surgeons separated this week is talking and cuddling her stand-in mother while the other is wiggling her fingers and soon will be woken from her induced coma. Doctors at Melbourne's Royal Chi...

Macedonia reports its first swine flu death
Skopje - Macedonia on Wednesday reported its first swine flu death - a 32-year-old man who died in Skopje hospital according to local media. The man was hospitalized earlier this week with a serious case of pneumonia. ...

Have your Say
Name
Email
Subject
Your Comment

Enter Verification code
 
  

 

 

More Health News click here
Follow The Earth Times
Subscribe to RSS Follow Earth Times on TwitterNews by email
Share/Save/Bookmark

 
 



 
Subscribe to free Earthtimes
News Alerts by Email Click here
For RSS Feeds Click here
or Create your own RSS

Add to Google Toolbar
Breaking News
Press Releases

 


The Earth Times
News Category

© 2009 www.earthtimes.org, The Earth Times, All Rights Reserved | Privacy Policy
Earth Times accept no responsibility or liability either directly or indirectly for views or opinions expressed in articles or comments.