Long waiting times for essential yet non-emergency surgeries in the Western world are resulting in patients opting for hospitals in the Middle East that are able to provide treatme the same quality at an affordable cost without any waiting time.
One such example was reported yesterday from King Hamad American Mission Hospital i
A'ali, Bahrain, where a 68-year-old resident from Canada opted to have a hip replacement
done by a team led by Orthopaedics and Trauma Consultant Dr. Gianluca Cusmá Guatteri
popularly referred to as Dr. Luca by patients and in the medical circles.
The woman, who was a former resident of Bahrain, had gone to the hospital in Toronto
complaining of a painful hip and was found to be in need of a hip replacement. However, sha
was put on a waiting list for the procedure.
Canada provides free healthcare, but many non-emergency procedures require a long wait
time. According to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the benchmark wa
time for hip and knee replacement surgery in the country is siX months, and for cataract
surgery is 3.7 months .
When Dr Luca examined the patient from Canada, it was found that her left hip was complete
destroyed due to arthritis, resulting in no space between the bones and many bone spurs that
were causing pain and severely lirniting obility .
