7 Things I Learned As A Health Tourist

- Eva Mackevic

If you’ve ever encountered horror stories about infected wounds, lost dental implants or botched nose jobs on forums like mumsnet.com, medical tourism may seem like a plunge into a nightmarish Louis Theroux documentary-like scenario.

Yet with NHS waiting times verging on the brink of comical and private healthcare prices reaching astronomical heights, it’s no surprise so many of us are actually considering it. Curious to find out how it works for myself, I travelled to Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, for an extensive health check-up. Here are the seven things I learned…

1 The language barrier… is probably one of the first things that’ll cross your mind when considering medical tourism—it’s sometimes hard enough to find the right words to explain something to a doctor in English, let alone a language you don’t speak a word of, in a country you’ve never been to before.

And yet, while some miscommunication is inevitable, it was never an issue during my trip. In fact, it proved to be a joyous source of unexpected comedy on numerous occasions.

First and foremost, don’t panic. Medical travel companies such as BMT Partner appoint a person who accompanies you during each doctor’s visit and assists you with anything you might need, including translation services. In my case, that person was an eagle-eyed but pleasant Bulgarian lady named Vesselina, who speedily and expertly translated every bit of information relayed to me by the doctors (even casual chit chat between themselves, addressing everything from the weather, to the recent marriage of the nurse’s friend’s brother’s co-worker) making sure that every fragment of conversation was crystal clear to me. Similarly, any medical records and test results were translated to English within hours of the procedures and presented to me straight away.