NHS sends patients abroad after waiting lists hit record high

Telegraph

4 hours ago

The NHS is paying to send rising numbers of British patients abroad for treatment after waiting lists in England hit record highs.
The health service is funding treatments across Europe in countries including Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.
Treatments being carried out abroad range from routine operations, including hip replacements and cataract operations, to more complex cancer surgery.
The number of people having such procedures overseas has jumped by 42 per cent in just two years, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Health Secretary described the situation as 'unacceptable', saying a 'broken NHS' had left patients waiting 'far too long for treatment, forcing many to go private or even seek healthcare abroad'.
The revelations come as Wes Streeting prepares to publish a 10-year health plan that aims to clear backlogs and reform the way services are delivered.
On Friday night, he pledged his plan would 'catapult the NHS into the 21st century and get people seen on time in a modern health service on British shores'.
Experts said the rising cases were a 'terrible indictment' of the state of the NHS, with Poland, Germany, Italy and Belgium among the main beneficiaries.
Under a little-known post-Brexit healthcare agreement, the NHS will pay another European country to treat UK patients where there is 'undue delay' to them accessing equivalent treatment on the NHS within a 'medically acceptable timeframe'.
Patients desperate to have gynaecology surgery and hip replacements were the most likely to get NHS approval to travel overseas for their treatment.
Those waiting for cancer treatment, and surgery to repair hernias, remove gallbladders and treat cataracts also fled Britain to get help more quickly, the investigation reveals.
The treatment or surgery must be provided by a state healthcare system, not a private clinic, and patients must fund their own travel and accommodation costs.
There has been a rapid rise in the number of UK patients using the scheme, as the NHS battles to reduce waiting lists, which peaked in 2023.
In the last three years, the NHS has spent £4.32 million sending 352 patients overseas for treatment, according to data from the NHS Business Services Authority, which handles the payments.
The number of overseas treatments paid for by the NHS jumped from 99 in 2022-23 to 112 in 2023-24 and rose again to 141 in 2024-25, according to figures obtained by The Telegraph under Freedom of Information laws.
Mr Streeting said: 'This Government inherited a broken NHS, with patients left waiting far too long for treatment, forcing many to go private or even seeking healthcare abroad. This is unacceptable and, since day one in office, we have been delivering the investment and reform needed to turn the NHS around.
'We are focused on delivering for patients, so they get the treatment they need, when they need it, closer to home. In less than a year, we've delivered 3.6 million more appointments, cut the waiting list by almost a quarter of a million, and diagnosed an extra 100,000 suspected cancer patients on time.
'There's a long way to go, but we are finally putting the NHS on the road to recovery.
'Our forthcoming 10-year plan will lay out how we catapult the NHS into the 21st century and get people seen on time in a modern health service on British shores.'
Dennis Reed, from Silver Voices, said: 'This is a terrible indictment of the state of the NHS. People have to be desperate to think about having hospital treatment in another country, hundreds of miles away.
'It is really worrying and it's also worrying about the inequalities – most of us wouldn't know about this scheme, and many could not afford the travel and hotels, so the vast majority of the population just have to put up with really long waits.'
'Says a lot about pressures on NHS'
There are currently 1.4 million people waiting for NHS gynaecology or orthopaedic procedures, including hip replacements, in England.
Of these, nearly 43,000 have waited more than a year for treatment since being diagnosed, latest figures for April 2025 show.
Siva Anandaciva, director of policy at The King's Fund, said it was 'striking' that more Britons were getting treatment overseas.
'It was only a few years ago that the concerns about medical tourism were that too many people were coming to the UK to seek treatment. It says a lot about the pressures the NHS is under that the concern now is that too many people [from the UK] are seeking treatment overseas,' he said.
'The NHS has made substantial progress in tackling the very longest waits for care that built up before and after the Covid-19 pandemic, but the reality is that it will be several years before national waiting list targets are routinely met again.'
Patients were most likely to travel to Poland for treatment, with the NHS paying for 72 procedures to be carried out there between 2022-23 and 2024-25. This was followed by Germany (59 procedures), Italy (32), Belgium (31) and Ireland (26).
But the NHS spent the most money on treatments performed in Ireland, which cost around £3.15 million over the last three years. It also spent £224,000 on NHS patients having treatment in Germany; £147,000 on treatments in Poland; £138,000 in Switzerland; £138,000 in Italy; and £134,000 in Austria.
Payment figures were recorded by the NHS in the local currency and converted to pound sterling by The Telegraph based on currency exchange rates at the time of writing.
Separate NHS England figures also revealed that nearly two out of every five applications (37 per cent) made by patients wanting to travel abroad for treatment were approved in 2024, up from just one in five (21 per cent) in 2022, suggesting more applications are meeting the criteria for 'undue delay'.
Rachel Power, chief executive of The Patients Association, said when patients felt compelled to seek treatment abroad, it was 'a reflection of the state of the waiting lists and the very severe problems of the NHS'.
Mrs Power suggested the system could worsen 'inequalities', as the scheme is only accessible to those able to work out the application process and who have the means to pay for travel and accommodation.
'To do this, you have to have the confidence and ability to navigate the system – we talk to patients all the time who can't navigate and access treatment [on the NHS],' she said.
Prof Ranee Thakar, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the fact patients were travelling long distances for treatment was 'clear evidence that they can't access the care they need, when they need it'.
She added the Government must tackle the 'critical issue' of long waits for gynaecology treatment in its upcoming NHS 10-year health plan.
'There are more than three quarters of a million women in the UK waiting for hospital gynaecology care, with serious conditions that have a devastating impact on almost every aspect of their lives,' said Prof Thakar.