KRISHNA Heart and Super Specialty Institute

Passage to INDIA for KNEE Surgery

(By Paul Gilbrido)

A MAN who faced a two-year wait for NHS Surgery on his crippled knees traveled to India to have the operation done instead.

James Campbell, 69, was in so much pain he was forced to walk backwards down stairs to ease the pressure on his arthritic joints. The grandfather was appalled when he was told he would have to wait two years just to get on the NHS waiting list for surgery.

So he flew to India where the operation was carried out. Mr. Campbell, from Braemar, Aberdeen shire, said: “I find it disgusting. I`ve worked all my life and paid my taxes all that time. I`ve never asked for anything back. But the first time I did I was forced to leave this country and go elsewhere. It’s a damning indictment of our health service.”

Retired retail manager Mr. Campbell was diagnosed with osteo-arthritis around two years ago. Excruciating pain in his knees left him unable to do simple things such as going for walk.

But the final straw came when he realized he was on a

Drastic Action is only hope to avoid NHS two-year wait

waiting list to get onto the actual waiting list, and could have been forced to wait a lot longer than two years.

Mr. Campbell then thought about getting the surgery done privately but could not afford the £20,000 bill for UK treatment. He picked the KRISHNA Heart Institute in Gujarat from the Internet for his treatment, which cost £8,000.

He and his wife Pam traveled to India in October where he under-went two 45-minute operations spending three weeks recuperating.

Mr. Campbell said he has no plans to follow the lead of English patient Yyonne Watts, who went to France for a hip replacement and tried to reclaim the £3,800 cost from NHS.

He added: “I did consider that for a while, but I eventually abandoned the idea. But people should be allowed to sue if they want to. The NHS should be held responsible when people can't wait any longer for treatment and have to pay for it themselves.”

Scottish Troy Health spokesman David Davidson MSP said “Despite all the billions of pounds poured in, more people are waiting longer, fewer operations are being carried out and more and more people are faced with having to endure needless pain and suffering. The public is not fooled any more.”

Shadow Health Minister – Shona Robison of SNP added: “This is yet another example pf the Scottish Health Service being grossly under-resourced and understaffed”.

A spokesman for Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We have 13 orthopedic consultants and all have different waiting times. However in most cases we meet our inpatient nine-month guarantee times.”

Mr. Campbell added: “In India the staff and facilities were second to none. The place was so clean you could have eaten food off the floor. I don’t think you can say that about British Hospitals.”