Britain to move EU over India's medical outsourcing call

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

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