Plan to let patients opt for operations anywhere in EU

PLANS for patients to opt for healthcare in any EU member state if they wish were to be unveiled today.

The new "single market" in medical treatment is partly a response to a European legal ruling last year that backed the case of 75-year old Briton Yvonne Watts, who paid £3900 for a hip replacement in France because she was not prepared to wait a year for surgery in the UK.

The NHS refused to reimburse her, but the EU judges said she was entitled to shop around in the EU because of the "undue delay" in her treatment prospects in Britain.

If approved by EU ministers, the proposals would oblige national health systems in the 27 member countries to provide equivalent hospital facilities to those patients would be offered in their own countries.

Some Labour MPs claim so-called EU "health tourism" could undermine the NHS, but Tories welcomed the move as freedom for NHS patients to express their views about the service.

Conservative health spokesman in the European Parliament, John Bowis said: "With ever-growing concerns over the spread of hospital infections, we will doubtless see people voting with their feet on the Government's handling of the NHS."