A British man will become the first NHS patient to undergo surgery at a Calais hospital, under a new scheme that saw his waiting time for the procedure reduced from nearly 10 months to a few weeks.
Last year, Centre Hospitalier de Calais won the right to provide services for NHS patients, signing an agreement with South Kent Coast NHS whereby patients would travel at their own expense to France but with the health service covering the cost of the surgery.
The hospital has trained dozens of nurses and support staff in English, and an NHS sign now hangs at its entrance.
Timothy Brierley, who lives in the village of Lyminge, Kent, a 15-minute drive from the Channel Tunnel, said travelling to France on Thursday for his operation was no less convenient than going to his local hospital, but claimed the difference in waiting times was staggering.
Brierley, 54, a civil servant, will undergo a routine gall bladder removal on Friday morning. He was first hospitalised in the UK in September and was told as he was discharged that waiting times for the procedure he needed at William Harvey hospital in Ashford were about 18 weeks or more. He heard nothing, he claimed, and after chasing up he was then told he would be waiting until at least July.
“The wait, absolutely, was the main reason,” he said. “I was very disappointed by it. It really was so frustrating. I’ve worked for 30 years, paying into the NHS, never had to use it before now. After I was told there was nothing before July, I decided I had to explore another avenue.”
Reading about the new contract with the French hospitals online, Brierley then went to discuss it with his GP. “He didn’t even know about it himself,” Brierley said. “The most surprising thing for me was how little information was out there that this was possible. Now I’ve known about it, I wish I’d come here when I’d first been discharged in September: it’s just as easy to come here as go to my local hospital in Kent.”
He was referred to the Calais hospital at the end of February, a waiting time of just six weeks. His surgeon, Laurent Tartar, said in France that would be a long wait. “For us that was a little too long, because he is the first one,” Tartar told the Guardian. “The next patients will have a shorter wait, don’t worry about that!”
Tartar said he had been taken aback when he heard that British patients would be coming to his hospital. “Yes, it is surprising. It’s very unusual in France to wait this long, so I’m surprised it’s necessary but I’m not surprised that they come. I would do the same. But for my job, it’s the same: French man, English man, it’s the same body.”
Brierley said that he wanted to spread awareness that coming to France was an option for patients, and said there had been a distinct lack of information about it. “That was the most surprising thing, not that it was happening but that there was so little information about it. We did all of the legwork ourselves.”
Brierley’s wife, Kellie, speaks French but the couple said they had been spoken to in English throughout their time in the hospital. “Everyone made such an effort,” she said. “I don’t think people should be frightened to come if they don’t speak French.”
Thaddée Segard, a businessman who acted as the go-between with the hospital and the NHS, said signage was now bilingual in order to win the contract. “It’s all ready: the health questionnaire, the consent forms, the nurses, everyone,” he said.
The contract will continue even if the UK opts to leave the EU after the June referendum, Segard said. “It’s a contract, that will remain in place, whatever happens. But it is a great example of European cooperation,” he said.
Hazel Carpenter NHS South Kent Coast clinical commissioning group, said they had conducted a thorough assessment of two French hospitals, Calais and Le Touquet, before finalising the contracts with them.
She stressed it was optional, not compulsory, for patients choose to travel to France. “It is purely a matter of choice and we will be very interested to see how many people take it up and what feedback they give us,” she said.
Other operations possible in France include cataract surgery, orthopaedics and ear, nose and throat operations. Patients, who are eligible no matter where they live in England, are advised to return to France for their follow-up appointments with the team who treated them, but Tartar said it was possible, although not encouraged, for the patients to do follow-up appointments in the UK.
All medical information will be shared with the GP, following identical confidentiality procedures, the hospital said.
Unison’s head of health, Christina McAnea, called the situation “a sorry state of affairs when we have to send patients to France for operations”.
“Despite the prime minister promising to maintain health services, this shows that the NHS does not have enough money or capacity to provide a full range of treatment to the people of Kent,” she said.
Brierley will stay two nights at the hospital, in a private room with his wife, before returning to Kent. He has yet to see whether the food is any better in a French hospital, as one might expect. “It can’t be any worse,” he said.
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