Belgium Medical Tourism is Booming

In 2006, scores of people have headed to Belgium - for everything from hip surgery to fertility treatment. It is not just NHS waiting lists that are forcing British patients across the North Sea. The high cost of private care in the UK means that treatment in Belgium can be a real bargain, even with travel costs added on.

Of all the treatments available for foreigners through Belgium's 'surgery supermarket', cosmetic and cardio thoracic surgery are two of the hottest items on the shelves and attract increasing numbers of customers from all over Europe.
Prices in these areas are the cheapest in the EU and the standard of hospitals and operations is second to none. STORY

British resort to DIY teeth pulling

Don't you love socialised medicine?

Such is the shortage of state-funded dentists that one in 20 patients has resorted to DIY treatment, in some cases pulling out their own teeth.

Anthony Halperin, chairman of the Patients' Association and a dentist himself, said: "It's simply astonishing in this day and age that we have people pulling their own teeth out.

According to the Government’s own estimate, more than 2 million people who wish to access NHS dental care are unable to do so. READ MORE