24 August 2001
Although the Department of Health referred to reports of the proposal as 'pure speculation', an official, significantly, refused to deny them. She added that enabling patients to be treated abroad would require changes in the law, which the DoH believes prevent health authorities contracting with health care providers for treatment to be supplied overseas.
It seems likely that the department will, in any case, have to bring forward legislation following a recent judgment in the European Court of Justice, which decided that residents of the European Union have the legal right to treatment elsewhere in the union if they face undue delay in their own country.
As yet it is unclear how NHS contracts with continental health care providers would be structured. Options include providers running under-utilised facilities in the UK – where these can be found – and building new ones.
But it seems likely, given the comments of the Department of Health, that the immediate focus could be existing units in other countries being allocated for the use of the NHS.
The NHS Confederation responded positively. A spokeswoman said: 'We think that the government should explore all options for bringing down waiting lists and taking the pressure off the NHS to allow it to modernise.'
PFaug2001
