Scalpel tourists

October 20, 2009  •  Andalucia  •  6 Comments

(6 votes, average: 3.17 out of 5)

 Loading ...

EXPATRIATES have been accused of taking advantage of the liberal Spanish health service.

It comes as hospitals on the Costa del Sol are being stretched due to the extra demand from Britons owning homes on the coast.

Many are long-term UK residents who fly out to avoid NHS waiting lists or receive treatment that would otherwise not be provided for them back home.

In particular, hip and cataract operations are the procedures most sought after by Britons now flocking to Spain.

“We get an increasing number of cases of foreigners who are taking advantage of the fact that they own a home on the Costa del Sol,” said Costa del Sol Hospital general manager Antonio Perez.

“Knowing that their own country does not cover all that we offer in Andalucía, they decide to come here,” he added.

Dubbed “health scroungers” and “dippers” these Britons form part of a growing contingent of people from the UK, Germany and Scandinavia, who cherry pick Spain’s health services.

Former Extremadura leader Juan Carlos Rodriguez Ibarra warned this week that “scrounge tourism” was bleeding money out of Spain’s health service.
The phenomenon is now increasingly being covered in the Spanish press.

Leading Spanish daily ABC commented recently: “Thousands of people from Britain, Germany and Scandinavia travel to Spain every year for operations that frequently are not covered by their own health system.”

In a letter written to 20 minutos, a Spaniard wrote that his English neighbours in Murcia only came to Spain for an operation and left immediately afterwards.

“As soon as he was allowed out of hospital they packed their bags and went home, not without first thanking us Spaniards for everything,” wrote Francisco Avila.

Charity Age Care in Fuengirola, confirmed that many expatriates were using their European Health Insurance Cards (EHIC) to receive treatment in a bid to avoid officially signing up for the Spanish health service.

Vice President Maurice Featherman explained: “People are coming out here with their health card and trying to claim emergency care and this is really straining the Spanish health system.

“They are not attempting to register because they are frightened of being increasingly taxed by the Spanish government, which is nonsense.

“The problem is rife here, people are abusing their European health cards and it is getting worse.”

“Now the expatriates who abide by the law are getting angry as they are all tarnished by the same brush.”

“The problem is rife here, people are abusing their European health cards and it is getting worse.”

His colleague Charles Betty however, insisted that the authorities were starting to clamp down on this issue.

Health trade union, Simap, confirmed that non-Spanish EU nationals in Alicante – with Britons by far the largest group – now accounted for up to 20 per cent of those treated in the region’s hospitals.

Dr Juan Benedito of Simap said: “Spain’s health service is quick, free and offers a wide range of services. It is not surprising that people come here.”

The ability to skip long NHS waiting lists is often the deciding factor for expatriates who share their time equally between Britain and Spain.

One patient, Bryan Arthur opted to have an aortic valve operation at a Costa Blanca hospital simply because he could be treated in two months, as opposed to six.

He wrote on the euroresidentes website: “The surgeon in the Costa Blanca hospital spoke English quite well, said I was in urgent need of attention and could accept me in two months and the charge would be on their national health service.

“So I signed the papers, had the preliminary catheterising and eventually was admitted.”

Reader Comments »