Clinical ethics: medical tourism in children

Decisions to seek treatment abroad are made privately by parents and usually uncontested by National Health Service (NHS) staff, despite some high-profile court cases. Treatment abroad often lacks continuity of care, with variable (or absent) sharing of medical information between countries if there...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Archives of disease in childhood 2021-12, Vol.106 (12), p.1143-1144
Main Authors: Birchley, Giles, Linney, Mike, Turner, Stephen W, Wilkinson, Dominic
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Autism
Child
Children & youth
Continuity of care
Courts
Crowdfunding
Decision making
Editorial
Ethics
Ethics, Medical
Evidence
Funds
Global health
Health care
Health services
Humans
Intensive care
Medical ethics
Medical Services
Medical tourism
Medical Tourism - ethics
Medical treatment
Minority & ethnic groups
Minority Groups
Negligence
Ostomy
Parents
Parents & parenting
Parents - psychology
Patients
Pediatrics
Physicians
Planning
Professional ethics
Tourism
Tracheotomy
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Summary:Decisions to seek treatment abroad are made privately by parents and usually uncontested by National Health Service (NHS) staff, despite some high-profile court cases. Treatment abroad often lacks continuity of care, with variable (or absent) sharing of medical information between countries if there are problems. Because medical treatment is expensive, crowdfunding websites have become a popular method of raising funds. The emphasis on public sympathy means that crowdfunding does not distribute resources equitably, and minority groups may raise less funds through crowdfunding than their non-minority peers.3 Crowdfunding publicises the private health information of a child with potentially lifelong impacts. Depending on what went wrong, it could be difficult to get problems treated on the NHS.5 Furthermore, even where treatment commenced overseas is successful it may not be funded on the child/young person’s return to the UK (although the best interests of the child will be the deciding factor in these cases).
ISSN:0003-9888
1468-2044
DOI:10.1136/archdischild-2021-322778