Yahoo! News.
WINNIPEG, Oct 1 (CBC) - A Manitoba company offering "foreign surgery for
the middle classes" is finding most of its patients come from the
Maritimes and the United States, not its home province.
Choices Self Directed Healthcare will arrange for Cuban medical
facilities to carry out a variety of surgical procedures - from cosmetic
to neurosurgery - for patients from Canada and the U.S.
The "medical tourism" service can help Canadian patients avoid long
waits for surgery, while for U.S. patients, the main attraction is
reduced cost.
Company founder Daren Jorgenson says most of the company's clients have
come from the United States and the Maritime region in Canada, not Manitoba.
"[Manitoba] is doing a fairly good job on surgery times, so that's why
we're not seeing a lot of Manitobans call us for surgeries," Jorgenson
told CBC News.
"The reason I say that is because we've probably had a lot more exposure
in this province than any other province - being a local company - and
we still haven't had a flood of people calling us for surgeries.
"But we've had a large number of people calling us from the Maritimes,"
he added. "Something's going on out there that they're not addressing
the surgery wait times as well as [in] Western Canada."
Most of the company's Manitoba clients are young people who have
suffered sports-related injuries who prefer to travel rather than wait
any length of time for surgery at home, Jorgenson said.
Dave Kornachuk is one of those patients. He's planning a trip to Cuba
for surgery on a leg tendon torn while practising martial arts last winter.
Kornachuk expects he'd have to wait about six months for surgery in
Manitoba, but doesn't want to wait.
"My principle desire is to try and get on with this and repair this leg
as soon as possible," he said.
More than 200 patients have travelled to Cuba for hip and knee
replacements, dental implants, addictions treatment, diagnostic tests
and other services, according to the company.
Treatment costs range from $1,400 for minor outpatient surgery to more
than $20,000 for neurosurgery.
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