Kent NHS patients to be treated in France

NHS patients in Kent will soon be offered the option of having their surgery and other procedures at medical centres in France.

The South Kent Coast Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) says it is in the final stages of a deal with the Fondation Hopale and the Centre Hospitalier de Calais under which they would provide general surgery, gynaecology, cataract surgery, pain management and orthopaedics.

"We carried out a careful assessment of the services they offer and are visiting the sites. The two French providers, among others, fulfilled our criteria and we expect to finalise a contract with them," says Hazel Carpenter, the group's accountable officer.

"It will then be possible for patients who need this treatment to choose to have it in France if they wish, after discussion with their GPs."

While the NHS will pay for patients' medical treatment, they will have to cover their own travel and other incidental costs, just as they would if receiving treatment in the UK. Travel costs would vary between around £30 by ferry to £100 by Eurostar.

"It is purely a matter of choice and we will be very interested to see how many people take it up and what feedback they give us," says Carpenter.

The deal would work in the same way as any other NHS referral, with GPs sharing patient information with the French providers. Patients would have round-the-clock access to the surgical team for the two weeks following their treatment, and follow-up checks could be carried out by phone, Skype or through another hospital visit.

The plan is being supported by Damian Collins, MP for Folkestone and Hythe."It is open for people if they want it, and in the short term it would give extra capacity to hospitals in Kent," he tells Kent Online.

"But in the longer term my priority is to have more facilities available in Kent with the use of more clinics such as at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone."

However, Unison regional health organiser Simon Boulton has questioned the deal, saying it could present problems for after-care.

"This is a lovely whizzy-wig dream someone's dreamed up to cover up the fact that the acute trust, East Kent University Hospitals Trust, is doing badly," he tells the Independent.

And it is: the trust is currently in special measures following a CQC inspection in August 2014 that rated it as 'inadequate' in terms of safety and leadership. Losing the income from, potentially, hundreds of operations a year won't help.

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