A trip abroad for treatment is a serious decision, both from the point of view of motivation as well as solution of organizational problems, related to the trip.
Let’s consider the reasons which compel a man to go for treatment abroad. As a rule, it is either the possibility of saving money and sparing time or getting access to first-class technologies and advanced methods of treatment and diagnosis. And sometimes it is the matter of life and death.
From the organizational point of view, the first question will be: where to begin, how to find the necessary clinic and doctor, possessing the high level of knowledge? There are two ways in this case: either to address the foreign clinic directly or to address a provider of medical services, that is, a specialized tourist operator. In the latter case, the tourist operator will not only select the country and medical establishment for you, but will also obtain the necessary visa, will arrange transfer, reservation of tickets and hotel, and will also provide for a skilled translation of all of necessary medical documents.
But whatever way you choose, the final decision in the choice of country, clinic and specialist will be made by you independently. We’ll point out several aspects which are extremely important when making a final decision, where to treat oneself and what doctor to trust in.
Choosing a clinic:
- check, what supervisory government authorities confirm legitimacy of activity of the clinic offered to you. Or there may be local supervisory authorities (in case of a private medical practice);
- study attentively the site of the clinic of your interest, where enough information must be both about the hospital itself and about its services;
- find out, where medical services will be given to you: in a large private hospital or in the small own clinic of the doctor? Will treatment be ambulant or it will be necessary to stay at a day and night clinic? And necessarily ask about the cost of each of the variants;
- take interest, whether the clinic has a crash card to be on a safe side in case of emergency;
- discover, how far the intensive care ward is located, which may be necessary in case of surgical emergency.
Choosing a doctor
Above all, learn about qualification of the doctor, his/her membership in the specialized associations which are obligatory in the country chosen by you, or membership in international associations. For example, plastic surgery specialists in Belgium - Belgian Society for Plastic Surgery, it is the analogue of English BAPRAS, or the members of international associations International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (www.isaps.org) (ISAPS) or European Association of Plastic Surgeons (www.euraps.org) (EURAPS) Surgeons with the USA diplomas are the members of American Society of Plastic Surgeons www.plasticsurgery.org (ASPS).
Execution of documents
Depending on the services yor need, preparation of all documents and correspondence with potential medical establishments for the purpose of treatment may last for up to year. However, it relates only to rare and difficult cases. As a rule, the documents for health, diagnosis, and «plastic» tours are executed for a few days or weeks.
We wish you good luck and enjoy good health!
There are some interesting articles on the issue:
How to obtain a visa for a trip abroad with a medical purpose
