Medical Tourism in Portugal Spain and Brasil

Medical tourism is one of the fastest growing businesses in the UK. Nearly everyone in Britain knows of someone who is sporting a ‘new look’, whether it is a lovely set of boobs, pearly white teeth or a beautiful aquiline nose.

Ask them who did the operation, and the odds are you’ll get the answer: ‘Oh I had it done abroad.’ The reasons are obvious.

The price of private cosmetic and dental surgery in the UK is amongst the highest in the world and when it comes to medical surgery there are still long waiting lists on the National Health Service for anything less than an absolute emergency.

So if you are in pain from an arthritic hip, are overweight and have been refused gastric banding, want a full face-lift, or simply whiter teeth it is cheaper and easier to go abroad.

But where to go, that’s the question. In my best-selling book The Complete Medical Tourist, which was published in May 2006, I point out destinations around the world which offer first class treatments of all sorts at affordable prices.

I tell readers where to go, what they can expect, the top-class hotels in which to recuperate, how much it will cost and even explain the different surgical procedures.

It has been a handbook that many have carried around the world whether having a nip-and-tuck in South Africa or a knee replacement in India. But many UK citizens who could benefit from medical tourism are loathe to travel to countries they have never visited for numerous reasons.

They may distrust the condition of the hospitals and clinics even though they have been reassured they are of a high standard. They may fear being in the hands of staff who speak English only sparingly, and they may rule out places like Thailand or Costa Rica as simply being too far away.

Even the new European Union countries of Eastern Europe are often dismissed simply because of their association with a communist past. But since my book was published last year a major new destination for medical tourism has emerged – the Iberian Peninsular.

Spain and Portugal have long been favourite holiday destinations for millions of Britons every year. From the Algarve to the Costas, the British have swarmed over the peninsular.

And any holidaymaker who has been to a Spanish or Portuguese hospital in recent years for even the most minor of ailments will know how clean, efficient and technically up-to-date they are.

Small companies like the Barcelona-based Cosmetic Surgery Abroad and a similar company in Mallorca have seen the potential of medical tourism. But they are minnows compared to a brand new company with the 21st Century name Fly2doc which has its headquarters in Lisbon, Portugal.

It is the brainchild of João Vilaça Ramos and Duarte Caro de Sousa who aim to combine the cost effectiveness of medical tourism with a destination that UK patients know and trust.