Biologics & Medical Tourism

Very interesting way of doing it. Did you go ahead? £3K a year does sound cheap compared to the UK. Do you know which biologics that referred to? Some are now cheaper due to availability of biosimilars. Unlike other medical treatments or cosmetics I,e botox, Turkey teeth etc, there so many stories of this going wrong and the patient basically denied treatment on the NHS to sort the problem out. So if for example you dont live in SA and signed up for this treatment at £250 a month how would you get the medicine which often has to be refrigerated? Who will undertake regular blood tests and who pays for that? What if something goes wrong, will you have immidiate access to a dermatolgist/rheumotologist? Sorry to put a negative slant with my comments. It would be interesting if anyone has experience of this?

A very long story but in essence I ended up leaving SA before starting the treatment. In theory it would now be even cheaper as the Rand has dropped to the GBP by about 20% since last summer. Not sure which bio they were prescribing... Hence my thinking and maybe not SA but what about somewhere like Europe. In SA they would have wanted to do all the standard monitoring, not sure if his could be done in the UK and you just go when you need the next dose. If it was similar money and I had to get on a plane every 6 weeks into Europe but it was affordable I would seriously consider it.. Does anyone know what the best value 'private' treatment is in the UK and approx. cost? I now live in the Channel Islands but 'bounce' in & out of the Uk almost every week. I would have to pay for it in Guernsey and the cost would be eye watering, at the same time I have kinda had enough of P and just want to try something new.....

Hi Barney, I am not sure I have replied to a previous post of yours before. Were you previously planning to go to the US on a similar fact finding mission? Anyway may I ask why are you looking abroad and not pursuing this in the UK, surely would be much easier. Do you have a dermatologist in the UK? I have read that going private may be able to prescribe likes of methotrexate. You may have to pay the private prescription rate. Although if that can be referred back to your GP then there may be possibility to have it on NHS plus any follow up blood tests. You would have to discuss all this off course with private derm. I personally think that would be a more practicle option than what you propose. Good luck.

Only a tiny number of biologics really work, so I'd be very picky about what is on offer.