What could go wrong during medical travel?

What could go wrong during medical travel

Medical Tourism is presented in this guidebook as an unbiased alternate approach to receiving care. Along with the advantages of opting for this type of treatment that are highlighted within this book, it is only fair to the consumer, that the disadvantages and potential complications are discussed as well. Any medical treatment, whether in your home country or abroad, carries the possible risks of problems occurring. However, the dangers are heightened when medical treatment is provided in a foreign country as it is in a land very unfamiliar to the patient.

Even after taking all the necessary precautions required prior to travelling for medical services abroad, there is a possibility that things could still go wrong. The complexity of such situations is multiplied as you, the patient are away from your friends and family and removed from the medical system you are familiar with. Therefore, it is important to be financially and mentally prepared for such exigencies. For example, patients may incur unforeseen costs, require extra time off from work and possibly encounter inadequate medical facilities to solve the problem

More post-operative care than anticipated

As mentioned above, no surgery is able to guarantee a completely risk-free treatment. Even though the utmost care and precautions are taken with each patient, sometimes even the best doctors make mistakes as a result of basic human error. Therefore, even though you may have opted for medical tourism either to save money or to obtain quality care, there is still the risk of requiring more post-operative care at the medical tourism destination itself.

Incidents such as a patient not reacting well to the anaesthetic dose provided, or cases where something goes wrong during surgery that is unanticipated, are all possible hazards. Potential medical tourists should be aware of this risk, and therefore take all the precautions necessary. For example, your application for travel visas should be made keeping in mind that you may face the possibility of an extension in your stay, and enough time must be scheduled off work to account for any unanticipated problems.

Read comprehensive section on Post operative care related challanges in Medical Tourism in guidebook.

Doctors refusing to correct surgical errors

Prior to the treatment, you could be thoroughly satisfied with your treating physician and the consultations could have gone smoothly. However, during the treatment, there are several potential possibilities of an error occurring as doctors are human beings after all. Besides just the human error that could be made by one of the healthcare providers (anaesthetist, physician, nurses etc.), a natural calamity could occur which is beyond the control of the hospital or physician.

However, what is in the control of the doctor is correcting the surgical error that has occurred. Since the error is absolutely no fault of the patient, you should ideally be able to receive any corrective surgery at no cost. Some doctors will refuse to fix any surgical or treatment mistakes as it would take up further time and effort on their part. This is something patients should be wary about, as there have been cases reported (especially from cosmetic surgery patients) that had to go back home without any fixes of the medical errors that occurred abroad. 



Corrective surgery & post-operative is expensive and unavailable once the patient returns home

Upon returning home, it could be very difficult to access adequate care once the procedure obtained through medical tourism is completed. Patients go abroad due to affordability or accessibility factors, and the services in their home country might not be suitable enough to handle any post-treatment complications. Therefore, needing to access medical services once you are back home might defeat the purpose of engaging in medical tourism in the first place.

For example, a simple cosmetic surgery gone wrong may require prohibitively costly corrective surgery that might be unavailable to you. Moreover the corrective surgery may not be possible due to your health condition. Also, once back in your home country, regular insurance coverage may not extend to reimbursing the costs of corrective surgery.



Lack of recourse for patients

The legal framework differs from country to country as does the process of grievance redress.  Also, the process of seeking legal remedy may be very costly and cumbersome for a patient, and not something that you budgeted for. In some cases legal systems within a patient’s home country may not be capable of providing official remedy against negligence by the medical team of the treating facility.

There have been cases reported of the treating doctor or the medical center refusing to undertake corrective surgery citing that such a procedure was not part of the package initially agreed upon.  Therefore, medical treatment should only be planned if the contract has been found to be justified and fair. A facility interested in attracting medical tourists will likely have a code of conduct and ethical practice norms in place. They should be consulted prior to agreeing on an arrangement for medical treatments. As a medical tourist, you should specifically seek the policy of the medical center on corrective surgery as a result of errors committed by the doctors on their roster.



Cultural barriers in Medical Tourism

In most cases the patient will hail from a different cultural background than the one prevalent in the host country. There is also a difference in cultural expectations. These are typically true for medical tourists travelling from Middle Eastern Islamic countries to North American or European countries for treatment. This difference in cultures can prove traumatic for a patient.

A conservative Islamic lady may have reservations about being examined by a male doctor or some Christian patients might have certain beliefs about blood transfusions. The patient should mentally prepare for such incidences. Also, the medical facility should be informed of such possible beliefs and the doctor should be consulted prior to the procedure. The treating doctor should be alerted of such reservations on the part of patients, prior to performing any procedure which might cause discomfort to the patient.



Language issues in Medical Tourism

Besides the obvious cultural differences that are inherent in the field of medical tourism, the concept of language plays a major role in seeking quality care. If the treating physician and patient can’t communicate with each other, this could severely impact the outcome of the treatment the patient receives.

If the physician isn’t able to properly understand a patient’s complaints or if they do not receive the right medical history due to lingual barriers, this could completely ruin the initial consultations and therefore the rest of the treatment. Also, if the physician has to provide you with medical advice that you need to comply with, it is essential that as a patient, you receive this recommendation in a comprehensible language.