More than half a million Britons are now travelling abroad every year for medical treatment, new figures reveal.
Cut-price operations and long NHS waiting lists are fuelling a boom in health tourism, with the number heading overseas rising sharply year on year.
Data from the Office for National Statistics shows a 50 per cent increase since 2022, with 523,000 people last year seeking treatment outside the UK.
Of those, more than 40 per cent travelled to Turkey – now notorious as a hub for cheap cosmetic surgery. Other popular destinations included Poland, Romania and Portugal.
India was the only country outside Europe to make the top ten, attracting 22,000 British patients.
Among those seeking treatment overseas was 66-year-old Paul Seamons, who flew to Lithuania for a hip replacement after being diagnosed with osteoarthritis.
‘I initially saw an NHS consultant and he advised me that a total hip replacement was needed and that I would be added to the waiting list,’ said the retiree from Norfolk.
‘I have a very active lifestyle walking around three miles a day and cycling 300 miles a week, so I really didn’t want to have to put that on hold indefinitely.’
One patient who went abroad for surgery is Paul Seamons, 66, (left) who opted to have his hip replacement surgery in Lithuania after being diagnosed with osteoarthritis.
On a friend’s recommendation, he booked surgery in the Baltic state.
Within weeks of making his first enquiry, he flew out in June 2024 for the procedure – paying £8,500, around half the price quoted privately in the UK.
Mr Seamons had his hip replacement at Nordclinic in Kaunas, Lithuania, and said: ‘The whole procedure was superb from start to finish.’
Just seven weeks later he was back on his bike, riding 60 miles, and has since completed a gruelling 240-mile trip non-stop.
Orthopaedic surgery is now top of the NHS waiting list, with 700,888 patients currently on hold for hip, knee and other joint operations – the highest figure in more than a decade.
Hospitals across Europe report a surge in British patients desperate to escape delays at home and drawn by fees often 50 per cent lower than private clinics in the UK.
‘This significant and steep increase in patient numbers is an indication of the strain being felt by the NHS,’ said Vilius Sketrys, commercial director at Nordclinic.
‘The first thing prospective patients tell us is that they are driven abroad because of the waiting lists.’
The in rise UK health tourists: How struggling NHS and sky-high prices to go private are driving Brits aboard for routine surgeries like knee and hip replacement
‘They don’t want to put their lives on hold and spend several years in pain and discomfort before they are able to resume normal life,’ Mr Sketrys said.
‘We hear of waits of up to four years for joint surgery and other operations, although this can vary depending on the region. But patients feel they have no option but to go private if they want their lives back.’
However, experts warn that travelling overseas for medical treatment can put patients at serious risk.
Dr Mo Akhavani, consultant surgeon and co-founder of The Plastic Surgery Group, said: ‘One of the main dangers of having major surgery abroad is getting on a flight afterwards.
‘It is recommended that you don’t fly for six weeks due to the increased risk of blood clots. But because staying abroad for that period is so costly, most patients fly home much sooner – which means they are gambling with their lives.’
He added that while many people seek consultations in the UK, they then choose cheaper surgery abroad – only to return asking for the ‘disaster to be fixed’.
‘The issue is that if you go abroad and something goes wrong, you may struggle to find a clinician here willing to correct it,’ he warned.
‘It’s not that all overseas surgeons are bad – there are excellent doctors – but what is often missing with fly-in, fly-out procedures is the vital pre- and post-operative care.’
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