health tourism
noun [mass noun]
The practice of travelling abroad in order to receive medical treatment.The European Commission, which proposed the scheme earlier this month, denies that it will promote health tourism by encouraging people to travel to countries where treatment can be obtained more quickly and cheaply....
- But while Scotland is on the receiving end of NHS health tourism the Scottish Executive has so far refused to make greater use of private hospitals at home or abroad to cut waiting times.
- In in the former Soviet Union there was even a clear pattern of state supported falsification of birth records to develop this region for health tourism and to receive research grants.
Derivatives
health tourist
- Labour delegates love this stuff, but voters would prefer both men to concentrate on real reform of the NHS, which already treats thousands of global health tourists.
- France has, however, clamped down on UK health tourists who previously travelled across the Channel to buy single vaccines for their children.
- From next April, health tourists will have to pay in advance, unless the treatment is an emergency or they have an infectious complaint.