Is 'health tourism' the new phase of 'outsourcing'?

The next stage, almost inevitably, leads to the outsourcing of medical treatment and that has already started. In fact, the NHS has begun sending patients to Europe for treatment to cope with its backlog of cases, but hospitals and nursing homes in the private medical industry in India seem to have an edge over their European counterparts in more ways than one. Consider, for example, the case of Mr George Marshall of Bradford, England who recently saved his life as well as a packet of money by outsourcing his heart bypass operation to a hospital in the South Indian city of Bangalore.

Diagnosed with coronary heart disease sometime last year, Mr Marshall was offered the choice of either waiting for at least six months for his operation on the NHS or opting for private treatment without delay at a cost of nearly £20,000. Not a wealthy man, Mr Marshall could hardly afford that kind of money and his dilemma was made more acute by the fact that even his own GP was not one hundred per cent sure that he would survive a six month wait. Fortunately, however, he found a solution and yes, you have guessed its source, it was the internet, the modern day oracle that can provide answers to practically all of life's riddles except perhaps a question like "Who will inherit the earth after the humans?" But Mr Marshall was not looking for that kind of answer, he was only interested in finding out what would enable him to outlive his coronary heart disease.

After a few hours of surfing, he was able to get through to the Wockhardt hospital in Bangalore which guaranteed him the best treatment available anywhere in the world with absolutely no delays involved. The hospital also referred him to other patients or "medical tourists" from Britain who had undergone various kinds of surgery, including heart bypass surgery, there and after a chat with them Mr Marshall made up his mind. In January this year he flew 5,000 miles to India to go under the scalpel and after successful completion of his operation he is well on the road to recovery now. "I have been in the NHS and gone private in Britain in the past," he says of his experience: "and I can say that the care and facilities in India are easily comparable. I'd have no problem coming again." And the cost? Less than £5,000, including the flight, thus saving him £15,000 on the cost of the same operation at a private clinic in Britain.

Moreover, the Wockhardt in Bangalore and similar institutions elsewhere in India offer an additional bonus -- all of them have doctors and staff who speak excellent English whereas the hospitals in Germany or Belgium, where NHS patients are normally sent, may do operations slightly more cheaply than British hospitals but rarely have English-speaking staff.

So with patients across the globe willing to travel to India to get treatment much quicker or much more cheaply than in their home countries, Indian hospital groups are looking forward to a huge market for the services they can offer. A study conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) estimates that nearly 150,000 foreigners visited India for medical treatment last year alone and predicts up to 15% annual rise in this figure in the foreseeable future, thereby indicating that by the year 2012 this so called "medical tourism" could be worth Rs100 billion (or around £1.20 billion).

No wonder the Indian private medical industry is going all out to reap this staggeringly rich harvest and packages designed to attract well-off foreign patients, which include airport-to-hospital bed car service, in-room cable television and internet access, even private chefs, are being offered. And, of course, the quality of the treatment provided -- the most important thing of all -- is generally at par with accepted international standards. According to a spokesperson for the CII: "Nobody questions the capability of an Indian doctor, because there isn't a big hospital in the USA or in Britain where there isn't an Indian doctor working."

The saga of David Blunkett
Yes, it is still continuing and becoming more colourful by every passing day. But, no, right now I am not talking about the latest stage in Mr Blunkett's attempts to prove his fatherhood of the children of his former lover Ms Kimberley Fortier-Quinn. Soon after returning home with her newly born second child, Ms Fortier-Quinn received a letter from Mr Blunkett's lawyers stating that their client was about to demand DNA tests to vindicate his claim that he was indeed the biological father of the baby. However, apart from the main parties involved in this dispute, very few people seem to be really interested any longer in whether the former Foreign Secretary wins his case or not. What a sizeable proportion of the British public are now waiting for with almost voyeuristic eagerness is a new play which is expected to preview at the Soho Theatre in London in April this year, then run at the Edinburgh Festival and perhaps open at the West End later in the year. The name of the play? It is being billed for the moment as "David Blunkett -- The Musical", but that may change eventually and "Kiss Me Kim" is one of the names that are being suggested.

The show is being produced by Martin Witts, who has scored a recent West End hit, in collaboration with the play's lyricist Ginny Dougary who also happens to be a mainstream journalist and a New York song writer known only as MJ. Initially Witts had planned to turn the Blunkett story into "a straight play with a hard edge" but it was Dougary's idea that it should really be a musical instead. "I started reading the Blunkett story and all the lines were there," she says: "lines that look as if they are from songs already. And look at the principal players -- the Socialist and the Socialite, what more do you want?"

No casting decision has yet been made for the musical although the names of a number of popular stage and screen stars are circulating on the grapevine. But songs have already been written for the four key characters -- David Blunkett, Kimberley Fortier-Quinn, the Spectator editor Boris Johnson and his lover Petronella Wyatt. An hour-long showcase of songs was recently presented before the media at a pub and print-outs of three songs to be sung by Blunkett, Kimberley and Petronella on stage were distributed. I had the opportunity of obtaining copies from a journalist friend who had attended the event and I present them here for the readers of London Letter:

The Blunkett song
I'm tough to be fair, / I'm tough to be kind, / Whatever you say / I don't mind. / I may be blind / But I can see / How inspiring it is / To be me. / Remember when we laughed out loud / At what they would say, / "The Socialist and the Socialite!" / What a headline-writer's day. / When we laid on the sand being kissed by / the sun, with our boy in our arms we three / as one. Now I'm here and you're there, and / it seems so unfair, and the days are so dark. / Oh, how I miss my little one.

The Kimberly song
I can be Vassar, / Or considerably crasser. / I can be anything / You want me to be. / I'm a consummate operator, / A shit-hot communicator. / Let's have a lunch date. / When are you free?

The Petronella song
It's not that I don't know / How to make a living. / My stint at the Torygraph / Was more fun than sinning. / Remember my interview with Denis Healey / When he came over all touchy-feely, / Saying what a shame no time for / rumpy-pumpy / Which made him grumpy.

The innuendos in the text of these songs at least some of them -- are likely to be unfamiliar to readers, nevertheless they are a good indicator of what the play is going to be -- a frivolous, tongue in the cheek look at British politics and the class element in the social system. Walt Disney once coined a word to describe some of the films he made -- "Edutainment" -- something that both educates and entertains. I don't know if Martin Witts has that word in mind when he says of his play: "It's really a piece of social history."