A radical deal to get NHS patients treated faster by sending them to France has fallen flat – with only two Britons taking up the offer.
The scheme, announced to great fanfare two years ago, was meant to ease pressure on waiting lists by taking on up to 400 operations a year.
But so far only two patients have gone through with treatment at the Centre Hospitalier de Calais.
A radical deal to get NHS patients treated faster by sending them to France has fallen flat – with only two Britons taking up the offer
When NHS bosses in Kent revealed the scheme in 2015, they said it would give patients facing lengthy waits for operations the possibility of receiving faster treatment.
Under the arrangement, patients from Folkestone or Dover could get treatment in France, paying only for their travel costs.
NHS South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group, which drew up the scheme, said at its launch: ‘We will be very interested to see how many people take it up.’
But Martin Trelcat, manager of the Centre Hospitalier de Calais, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘Frankly, we are really disappointed how few NHS patients have come to us. We thought we would have a lot more.’
He suspected some patients made enquiries about treatment in France to secure quicker treatment at home.
‘We’ve had to deal with a lot of cancellations from British patients who booked appointments with us simply to jump the queue in Britain,’ he said.
The scheme, announced to great fanfare two years ago, was meant to ease pressure on waiting lists by taking on up to 400 operations a year
However, few patients – or even doctors – in Kent appear to have heard of the scheme.
Civil servant Timothy Brierley, 55, underwent a gall bladder removal last April in Calais after being told he faced a wait of over 18 weeks in the UK.
But he had to tell his GP about the scheme himself as ‘he didn’t know anything about it’.
A spokesman for NHS South Kent Coast said: ‘Patients have a right to choose where they receive NHS treatment and we would encourage local people to consider the option of using hospitals in France.’