Breast cancer patient makes journey from London to India to save money for her anti cancer medication, medical tourism
A breast cancer patient made the journey from London to India in order to save money on her anti cancer medication-Herceptin.
India is likely to attract more such patients as there are considerable cost saving both for surgical procedures and medication.Fifty-year-old Linda Vijeh went to a private hospital in Pune for a mastectomy and reconstruction surgery done on October 4 and is now on her first course of Herceptin. Herceptin is an expensive anti-cancer drug Linda sold her house and decided to fly to Pune for treatment that is likely to cost her about 28,000 pounds. The drug, Herceptin itself will cost her 17,000 pounds for a years supply. Currently the drug is not licensed in the UK due to legal problems.‘It takes some leap of faith to fly to a Third World country to a doctor you’ve never met in a hospital you’ve never heard of. That is how desperate I was,’ said: Linda to a newspaper reported.
Medical tourism is likely to become one of the top foreign exchange earners for India in the near future. Almost all private hospitals are attracting patients from all over the world. The medical treatment in India is available at a reasonable cost and can be combined with a holiday. It hence makes more economical sense for patients. Many patients are also combining the treatment with a holiday on a health resort that offers the popular oil massage from Kerala.
