Medical tourism is a profitable source of income for the NHS, study finds

Private foreign patients are a lucrative source of income for the NHS, a new study has found.1 And medical tourism could be a growth area for NHS trusts now that the cap on income generated from private patients has been removed and trusts can earn up to 49% of their income from private work.

The study published in the open access journal PLoS One also found that despite media reports to the contrary, the United Kingdom is now a net exporter of medical tourists. In 2010 an estimated 63 000 UK residents travelled …