It is a story heard all too often in Medical Travel stories – The patient who needed surgery 5 years ago and has sacrificed quality of life because they can’t afford surgery. Desperation pushes them to seek out other options and that is when they pack their bags and head for foreign shores. The only regret when they are headed back home pain-free… waiting for so long to do it.

So why are people waiting? Three reasons I can think of:

1. Financial – Yes it is much cheaper, but what if it I still don’t have the cash?

2. Lack of knowledge – I didn’t even know that these options were available?

3. Fear – I have never been outside of the USA, I don’t know what to expect, it’s too hard.

The first 2 are easy. Financial assistance is available for medical care and some options will extend to offering assistance to medical travelers. One such option is mymedicalloans.com who offer assistance to New Zealand bound medical tourists.

The industry as a whole is doing a fine job at raising the profile of Medical Tourism and the PR surrounding it, means that the message is slowly but surely getting through. One of the most effective means of education is through word of mouth and the more happy patients going back to the USA, the more that seek out offshore options.

So coming back to fear – I certainly understand it. Medical treatment is scary and confusing enough on its own without adding the distance factor to it. But there are many ways that you can make your journey a whole lot less daunting with a few simple steps:

1. Research your destination

Find out all you can before you go about the country and customs you are going to so you know what to expect. Look at travel forums to get insider tips. Know how you are going to get from A to B.

Research the medical care at the hospital as well. Find out outcome information, number of surgeries the surgeon has performed. Nurse to patient ratio’s. Number of english speaking staff.

2. Talk to previous patients

Most good facilitators or international patient departments will be able to arrange for you to contact a patient who has agreed to talk to prospective patients. They will also be able to give you insider tips and reassurance of the quality and ease once you get there.

If you can’t talk to a patient then seek out credible testimonials. Good facilitators or treatment centres will have them readily available on their website.

3. Select an appropriate destination

There are so many Medical Travel destinations out there these days that you can pick and choose based on factors that are important to you. Do you want to choose a very safe destination? Is an English speaking destination important to you? Make a checklist of things you want in a destination and then start matching the available destinations to your wishlist.  If you are a fussy eater, you don’t want to go to somewhere that has food tastes vastly removed to what you are used to.

4. Find a facilitator you can trust

You should feel comfortable with the facilitator you are using. These are the people that you are entrusting with your healthcare, if you can’t trust them then find a new one! You should be able to ask them anything, if they don’t know the answer right off, then they should be finding out for you. Some patients actually find that traveling abroad for healthcare using a good facilitator is easier than staying at home, after all the facilitator knows the system inside out and takes care of everything for you. How many people can say that about using facilities at home?

5. Take a companion

Medical Travel is much easier with somebody to share the experience with you, but choose carefully. Someone who is off shopping or playing golf the entire time is not helpful. It is common to feel a little blue after surgery no matter where you have it and having someone on hand who can sympathize and help cheer you up is incredibly helpful. If you can’t take a companion then talk to your facilitator about home care assistants, it is amazing how much difference a friendly face makes when you are recovering.

There are many more tricks of the trade that make the medical travel experience a whole lot easier but the underlying factor is that a GOOD facilitator can make the process easy and familiar. Never underestimate how valuable being greeted by someone you trust and 24 hour assistance can make to the ease of your journey. Even at home haven’t you ever wished that someone would just figure it all out for you? That is the Medical Travel difference… They do!

Related posts:

1. 10 Handy Tips for Hip Replacement Surgery Overseas

Is access to safe blood transfusions a consideration for you when selecting a medical tourism destination? Information from the WHO suggests it should be…

“Evidence-based strategies for blood safety and availability have been successfully implemented in most developed countries and some transitional and developing nations. However, despite the proven effectiveness of these strategies, many countries are making slow progress towards their implementation.”

Infection is a risk with any blood transfusion. Diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B & C, Malaria and Syphilis can be acquired through receiving contaminated blood products. This fact has lead to strict regulation and screening of blood products in developed countries.

The WHO Aide-Memoir for national blood programmes indicate that the risk of infection through blood product transfusion can be substantially reduced through the following measures:

• Establishment of a nationally-coordinated blood transfusion service
• Collection of blood only from voluntary non-remunerated blood donors from low-risk populations
• Testing of all donated blood, including screening for transfusion transmissible infections, blood grouping and compatibility testingReduction in unnecessary transfusions through the effective clinical use of blood, including the use of simple alternatives to transfusion (crystalloids and colloids), wherever possible.

But wait, before you unpack your suitcase and sell the house to have your surgery at home, there are many Medical Tourism destinations with equally as safe, or even safer, blood supplies than the USA’s. For example New Zealand has one of the safest blood supplies in the world with no reported cases of HIV transmission from blood transfusion since they began screening for it in 1985 (NZBS).

You should be able to obtain reliable information on screening and outcomes from the hospital or facilitator you choose. An example of such information is the New Zealand Blood Services Hemovigilance Report.

While giving blood prior to your surgery (Autologous Transfusion) is an option it is usually not appropriate for Medical Tourists for the following reasons:

• Most reputable blood organizations will only take around 4 units of blood. In the case of an emergency this may not be sufficient and you may still require donor blood as a ‘top up’.
• Ideally you should allow around 1 week between donations. With the final donation a bare minimum of 48 hours prior to your surgery. This leads to a long visit to your chosen destination!
• There is a cost involved in the collection and storage process.
• Not all people or procedures are suitable for autologous donations eg. Cardiac surgery.

All it takes is a little research to find out which destinations are safe. Any facilitator worth their salt should be able to provide you with some statistics on your preferred destinations. Failing that a simple Google search with “blood transfusions [country]” should give you an abundance of information.

Related posts:

1. The Great Unknown – Is leaving home for healthcare really that scary?