justforfun

This must be a political issue in the UK, because in the rest of the world medical tourism has a very different meaning, one that most definitely involves full payment of treatment.

ajGoes

Evidently "medical tourism" means something different in the UK than here in the USA. We use it to describe trips to foreign countries to obtain medical care for less money than it would cost here. There's never the expectation that "less money" will mean "no money."

Kettering Northants QC

What if they travel by train? - 3 nights.

Kettering Northants QC

Any many people travel from the UK abroad to do exactly that.

ChangingNappies

Long train journeys aren't recommended either late in a pregnancy..

Kettering Northants QC

But are they likely to find anyone stopping them travelling by train, which might happen with flying?

UKtravelbear

Not on the trains themselves but UK Border Agency would no doubt have their suspicions raised by a heavily pregnant woman arriving at the border with no apparent connection to the UK.


The train Line europe says you can get from Istanbul to London in 2 days 16 hours with some connections of less than 20 minutes and some of 5 hours. Hard enough. IMHO, for most active people let alone a pregnant woman. That trip time assumes everything is on time.

UKtravelbear

As do we here in the UK - when you leave it to go abroad.

When coming to the UK it doesn't apply to those paying for their treatment but it is used for those who come for treatment and who don't pay.

Blame the media and politicians for it.

Calchas

Congratulations!

Personally if I was going to have a bloke or a lady fiddling around with my nether regions in a potentially risky medical procedure I would like to speak the same language—fluently.

Even having a haircut abroad makes me nervous so a double-baby extraction would definitely be planned for an English speaking country

IST-LHR is not half way around the world. It's about four hours flying time. You can fly there have lunch and come home again.

flatlander

I'm afraid this is just not true. Some scaremongers (such as The Daily Mail - rightwing newspaper that prints a lot of lies [1]) may be deciding to redefine "medical tourism" as they wish, but outside Daily Mail land and in common usage it means someone who visits another country to pay for and receive medical treatment. Just like "wine tourism" means someone who goes to buy wine, or "cruise tourism" means someone who goes on a cruise (and pays for it).

If someone wants to come to the UK for medical tourism, all well and good. We had someone posting here recently asking about the same thing for different reasons (wishing to pass on British Citizenship to their child). They said the cost was "four digits" a few years ago, I expect it is similar now.

[1] Partial list 1/3 of the way down http://www.newstatesman.com/media/20...iberal-britain

flatlander

It's a lot cheaper to stop a train for someone in labour to get off and be ambulanced to the maternity ward.

nacho

You don't always have the luxury to have access to a midwife that speaks your language. I had to stick with Swedish speaking midwives 2 out of my 3 births. Mr. tried to teach me some Swedish word so that I could understand what they said but then it wan't necessary because it was pretty straight forward what I had to do.

I could have arranged interpreter, and I'm sure there are English speaking midwives/doctors in Istanbul - after all OP is not the only expat there......

But if this is what she wants, she should go for it. There should be a handful of private hospitals that would be able to help you.

@OP if you do want to do this, make sure you have all the paper work ready when you enter the UK because UK immigration is one of the most suspicious immigration I have encountered (I was questioned by them with very strange questions like "why did you go back to Hong Kong for only 2 weeks just before Christmas holiday?" - I told them that the ticket was dirt cheap and I planned to spend my Christmas holiday in Denmark with my boyfriend). I had my university to write me letter every single time I left the UK for vacations.

2 years ago I spent a night at LHR with the kids during a layover to Hong Kong, we all have Danish passports and we were still questioned by the immigration officer - why are you coming to the UK (even though I showed him all the passports and our onward BPs). I said it was a layover and he asked where we are going to stay for the night and when was my flight the next day and which airline.

Good luck and congrats.

Christopher

I think though in the cases you are talking about, citizenship is not granted solely on the basis of birth in the territory - it applies to such circumstances (depending on the country) as the newborn child acquiring no other citizenship at birth or being a foundling.

This is in contrast to the situation that used to apply in jus soli countries such as the UK and Ireland and that still applies in the USA and Canada, where birth in the territory is alone sufficient to confer citizenship (with maybe very limited exceptions).

(In any case, I guess this isn't relevant to this thread because the OP is not seeking a new or extra citizenship for the children.)

Christopher

This is true. I think the term "medical tourism" was first applied somewhat facetiously by a British politician to refer to people who travel to the UK to get free medical treatment on the NHS that they are not entitled to and then leave without paying, and this use of the term has stuck. I don't believe, however, that the OP is considering this.

In the US the situation is somewhat reversed, I guess: whereas in the UK most treatment is free at the point of delivery, in the US it's expensive, and therefore there is an incentive for people to travel abroad from the US to get cheaper treatment (usually legally, I would guess, by paying for it). There is little incentive for people in the UK to do this, though they might consider travelling abroad and paying for treatment for other reasons (notably, I imagine, promptitude of procedures).

ajax

Non-essential dental work (e.g., fitting of bridges and dentures) and elective cosmetic procedures are two examples of reasons why people travel overseas for treatment. It is not rare in the slightest. Basically any procedure that costs money can probably be done more cheaply elsewhere and has probably already been visited by some British health tourist.