Drug and alcohol recovery services have been available in the UK for decades. The NHS provides some services in inpatient settings and in community outpatient clinics.
Private healthcare providers also offer both outpatient and residential treatments. In recent years, however, luxury rehab abroad has become increasingly popular. The question is: why?
Medical Tourism is a Mixed Bag
To fully understand what’s occurring, we must distinguish between general medical tourism and recovery abroad. In terms of the former, it is mixed. Whether medical tourism in the UK is outgoing or incoming depends on the types of care patients seek.
In 2024, more than half a million Britons who would otherwise haverelied on the NHS for medical care went abroad for treatment. The number represents a 50% increase over just two years. What is encouraging our citizens to go abroad? Long waiting lines at NHS hospitals and clinics. An estimated 7 million UK residents are now on an NHS waiting list.
The story is just the opposite for patients seeking private care. Not only are private healthcare providers providing care to UK residents, but they are also caring for medical tourists from other countries.
According to a 2024 study, private healthcare providers in the UK welcomed more than 10,600 non-UK patients in 2023. Meanwhile, an estimated 86% of patients who have received private healthcare in recent years have never considered going abroad.
Drug and Alcohol Recovery is Different
The numbers for general medical tourism paint a clear picture of a two-tiered system. Those who can afford private healthcare are happy to seek it here at home. Those who can’t would rather leave the UK than rely on the NHS. But what about drug and alcohol recovery?
Growing numbers of UK residents are leaving the country for drug and alcohol detox services. They are choosing to undergo recovery abroad in countries such as Switzerland, Spain, the U.S., Canada, and Thailand. It would appear that they are motivated primarily by cost and access.
Private treatment can cost less in some overseas destinations. Thailand and Spain are among the most affordable. Their prices are significantly lower than the private options here.
As far as access is concerned, we have already discussed waiting lists for NHS services. But even private rehab clinics do not always have open beds waiting for patients ready to begin detox. This is critical because the motivation to change is often fleeting. When a person is ready to make that change, delaying care is a bad idea.
Distance, Privacy, and Environment
While cost and access are the primary motivations for seeking recovery abroad, they are not the only ones. For some people, travelling abroad creates the distance they need to avoid triggers.
Getting away separates them from their normal drinking environment. It relieves daily stress. Travelling abroad can help a person focus more fully on recovery.
Receiving services in a foreign country can also make a person feel as though they have greater privacy. No one in their travel destination knows them. They don’t know anything about their home life, local town, or culture.
Such intense privacy is important to some people who are worried about the stigma of drug and alcohol detox.
A Desire for Holistic Treatment
Yet another motivation behind recovery abroad is the desire for holistic treatment. UK treatment providers have made great strides in the holistic arena in recent years, but the truth is that some other destinations do a much better job.
Think of Asia and Spain. Treatment providers in both do an excellent job of marketing their programs by focusing on serene climates, beautiful views of nature, and resort-style facilities that integrate both therapy and well-being practices like yoga, meditation, and outdoor activities.
Their holistic bent fits in very well with the much broader wellness travel trend. Holistic treatment centres become incredibly attractive to patients who are looking for more than a purely clinical experience. They are patients who want a program capable of treating mind, body, and spirit all at once.
The Broader Medical Tourism Market
Despite UK providers doing everything they can to serve patients here at home, they are up against a global medical tourism market that has recently discovered plenty of opportunities in addiction recovery. Addiction treatment has become a pillar of medical tourism among providers willing to offer specialised care and new therapies.
For some, everything and anything abroad seems better than what is available at home. Whether it is actually true, such perceptions are at least inviting those seeking addiction recovery services to consider travelling abroad.
There is little hope that the NHS will solve the systemic issues that prevent it from providing adequate addiction recovery here at home. But private healthcare providers are doing their best to meet patient needs. In the meantime, there are those patients who will still travel abroad.
