Cancer treatment draws 'medical tourists' but sparks complaints

New prostate cancer treatment unavailable in the United States has brought 200 'medical tourists' as well as their families and doctors to Bermuda.

The new treatment has been available here nine months ago and officials say the visits have generated a total of 1,000 bed nights for local hotels.

But complaints are now being made that local residents are being pushed side to accommodate the visitors flying in for the High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatment at the main King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

The controversial treatment is yet to be endorsed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

One medical practitioner, who did not want to be named, said that local patients need to brace themselves for longer waiting times for surgery to make room for foreigners seeking treatment on the island.

The doctor said he knew of at least one surgery being cancelled and another delayed because of HIFU.

Shadow Health Minister Louise Jackson believes this is just "the tip of the iceberg", as hundreds of patients head to the island for the treatment in the hospital's small number of operating rooms.

Details about the delayed and cancelled operations were published in the Royal Gazette newspaper just days after Jackson asked Health Minister Zane DeSilva in the House of Assembly whether any surgeries had been delayed or cancelled due to HIFU.

Another cancellation

DeSilva said categorically that the answer was no, and over the weekend the minister and the Bermuda Hospitals Board reiterated that no surgeries had been rearranged as "surgical time is allocated to HIFU weeks in advance".

But the medical practitioner told the Gazette that on January 14 an emergency C-Section was delayed and another hernia surgery was cancelled "while HIFU went on uninhibited".

"My case was cancelled completely because of the delay associated with HIFU patients being operated, and later it was discovered that there were no hospital beds. It is being denied, but this is happening."

However, a hospital spokeswoman said surgeries were not being cancelled, "especially not emergency surgeries".

She denied that HIFU was "experimental surgery", adding "it is proven and available in Canada and Europe and is in the final stages of clinical trials in the US".

- CMC