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 people who have visited the UK for medical treatment in the most recent year for which figures are available.

The Department does not hold information on the number of people who have visited the United Kingdom for medical treatment. However, we do hold information on the number of insured people from the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland who receive planned medical treatment in the UK.

There are two routes through which an EEA/Swiss-insured person can receive medical treatment in the EEA:

- S2 – the S2 route may entitle a person to UK funded treatment in 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 table outlines the number of S2s issued in 2016. We do not hold information on the number of reimbursements under the Directive as it is held by other Member States.

In 2016, a total of 1,126 individuals from the EEA/Switzerland received planned medical treatment via the S2 route, issued by the countries listed as follows: