Medical tourism is a term which can be used for those who travel abroad for an elective plastic surgery procedure combined with a holiday. It is equally used to describe the newer trend of those who need vital procedures such as hip replacements, but are suffering in pain on a long waiting list and cannot afford the vast sums involved to have private treatment in their home country.

Prohibitively expensive treatments in the US lead people to search out medical treatments abroad at a fraction of the cost. Those in the UK head to foreign parts as the National Health Service can’t provide the treatment without a long wait. Many foreign doctors were trained outside their own countries in some of the world’s finest hospital facilities. They now offer the highest standards of treatment in their country of origin.

India is the world leader in medical tourism, offering state of the art facilities and the newest technology, dispelling the image of impoverished hospitals. Investment has been made in specialist Indian hospitals to encourage the growing trend of medical tourism, as more people become aware of the benefits of treatment abroad.

Even with the travel costs involved the total amount spent on treatment for cardiovascular disease and hip replacements, amongst other procedures, still saves an ordinate amount of money for those who can afford to travel. Low labor costs, and doctors not hindered by high malpractice insurance costs, allow for treatments starting from just a 10th of the price of the same treatment in the US.