Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of UK residents that have travelled abroad for medical treatment in the most recent year for which figures are available.

The Department does not hold information on the number of United Kingdom residents who have travelled abroad for medical treatment. The Department does hold information on UK insured persons who have travelled to the European Economic Area (EEA) to receive medical treatment.

There are two routes through which a UK insured person can receive medical treatment in the EEA:

- S2 – the S2 route may entitle a person to UK funded treatment in another EEA country or Switzerland. For healthcare to be funded under the S2 route, a person would need to apply for funding before treatment and there are certain qualifying criteria that need to be met.

- EU Cross-Border Healthcare Directive – the Directive grants a right to purchase healthcare services across the EEA for all EEA-insured residents and to apply for reimbursement from their home system. A person using this route will have to pay the costs of treatment upfront and then claim eligible costs from the National Health Service on returning home. For some treatments, residents in England will need to get prior authorisation from NHS England before receiving treatment. Switzerland is not a signatory and the Directive does not apply there nor for its residents.

The following tables outline the number of S2s issued in 2016, and the number of reimbursements under the Directive.

S2

In 2016, a total of 1,347 UK-insured individuals received planned medical treatment via the S2 route, in the countries listed as follows.

Cross-Border Healthcare Directive

In 2016, a total of 1,113 UK-insured individuals received medical treatment via the Directive route, in the countries listed as follows.