Indian 'sun and surgery' holidays to woo Britons

A TRAVEL company is about to sell ‘sun and surgery’ package holidays to India for Britons who are fed up with long waiting lists on the NHS.

The holidays will include flights, surgery, a stay in a private hospital and also recovery time at a beach resort.

Thomas Cook, which will be offering the breaks this summer, is testing the market in the belief that thousands of Britons would prefer to pay to get an operation quickly rather than wait to be seen by the NHS.

The company is likely to have plenty of potential customers north of the Border, where NHS waiting lists have reached all-time highs despite record spending by the Scottish Executive. Disaffected with the NHS, 1,000 Scots a week are already opting for private health cover.

But for the majority of Scots who do not have cover, paying for care is an increasingly popular option. Last year, an estimated 7,400 Scots paid out of their own pockets for treatment of conditions such as hernias, varicose veins, cataracts, and hip and knee replacements.

However, those strapped for cash are likely to find care is cheaper abroad even when the costs of travel and time lazing on the beach are taken into account.

And private Indian hospitals often have higher standards than many state hospitals in the UK. The surgeons will be fluent in English and as highly qualified and regulated as those in the West.

Deals are likely to cost between 1,500 and 8,000 depending on the complexity of the operation. A heart surgery package would cost at least 6,000, but that would still be much cheaper than the 30,000 bill in the UK.

Thomas Cook spokesman Ameeta Munshi said: "We are tying up with selected hospitals which means people can have confidence in them, although we expect a lot of patients will want to do their own research."