Medical Tourism in Poland

I have just returned from a week in Poland.  My aim, in visiting Poland was to see what they had to offer in the way of medical tourism.  More and more countries are offering affordable, often unbelievably affordable treatment to medical tourists from other countries.

My guides in Poland were Lukasz Liese and Monika Miroszewska of StatMedica.  StatMedica are the most comprehensive source of information dedicated exclusively to Private Healthcare in Poland.  They can arrange whatever you need and I can assure you that if you received even half of the attention and hospitality as I did, you will never want to leave!  My hotel in Warsaw Le Regina which they (and I) highly recommend was easily one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in and I have stayed in a lot!  An old castle, rebuilt, as was most of the old town of Warsaw after the war, its marble floors central courtyard and general cool elegant atmosphere would be perfect for a hotel to recover in or just to enjoy a stay in Warsaw.  I will go into more detail in future articles.

Those of you who are regular readers will know that I have been no stranger to the dentist’s chair and have had serious dental problems to deal with.  This along with the serious problems in my dwindling bank account paying for this treatment made me very keen to find out how far my money would go in Poland.

This month I want to give you a broad outline of what I saw in Poland and over the next couple of months I will go into specific detail by specialty.

The first thing you notice about Poland is it is so clean!  No litter and although it seems that every other Pole has at least one dog, I saw no dogs mess anywhere!  I did wonder if their time under communist oppression had acted as a sort of ‘national service’ for the whole population.   The Poles I met were all very disciplined and focused on whatever job they were doing.  Their professionalism was unquestioned and their attention to detail in whatever field they were working was admirable.  On one occasion as we drew up at a clinic the attendant who raised the barrier for us to enter the car park also politely requested, before we went into the clinic that we adjust our parking position to perfectly align the car with the parking space!

I don’t know about you but I have not always had good experiences on foreign roads.  This is not helped by the fact that I am a nervous car passenger at the best of times.  In Poland the roads are orderly, it is rare to hear a car horn sounded in anger, and in the considerable time I spent being drive across Poland I did not see even the slightest hint of road rage.   For the first time in many years I actually fell asleep in the back of the car as I was being driven across country!

In the time I was in Poland I visited dental clinics, plastic surgery clinics, centres for ophthalmology and laser eye surgery, general clinics and, one very memorable fertility clinic.  As I said I will deal with these individually over the coming months with price comparisons for the most common procedures.  Prices may be extremely reasonable in Poland but there is certainly nothing cut price about the equipment being used, which is top of the range and the last word in, high-tech.  The cleanliness of the clinics is superb and MRSA virtually unheard of. In one dental clinic I visited their patients were asked to wear covers over their shoes before entering.