I'm being almost entirely facetious but for ~600 GBP one could fly to India, get excellent dental treatment and fly back.

I literally did this.

Ha! From your surname I'm assuming you have some ties to India?

There are companies that specialise in medical tourism but I wonder how feasible it would be for an individual who was completely unfamiliar with India.

You are correct about my ties to India but it is super feasible for someone without any ties.

The one thing I would stress is to do your research before going and find a credible medical centre. Booking appointments in India for dentists or doctors is pretty painless — very often you can get seen for a consultation in the same day, sometimes within minutes.

The one benefit of having ties to the country is that I have family on the ground whom already know of reputable doctors/dentists which makes it easy to avoid the horror stories (which are in the minority).

To clarify my experience: I had a root canal in the UK after being attacked with a weapon which crushed my front teeth.

I regularly got abscesses in the area for years and they were always treated with antibiotics and a pat on the head.

It flared up while I was visiting family in a very small village in Punjab and they sent me to their dentist.

It turned out that the dentists in the UK had been wrongly diagnosing and treating what turned out to be a root canal which was not properly completed (the dentist failed to remove the entire root).

This lead to an infection which grew over the period of roughly 12 years and spread into the actual bone of my jaw, eating away at it.

I needed a re-canal and an operation to remove the infection. Over the course of two weeks I had the operation and re-canal completed for roughly £50.

It’s been two years and there have been no problems at all.

Well it depends on which NHS you're talking about? Each country in the UK has their own NHS, some are much better than others.

To where are you referring?

Uk - Britain is ceaselessly proud of it's NHS, and 10 years ago it was fine.

I wiuld call in as a student complaining about a running nose and would get an appointment withing a day or two.

In the past few years it fell off a cliff.

Recently I called in about a serious infection and got told there are no appointment left this month. At all. It was the 2nd of March.

Thr only way to get treatlent is to go to the accidents and emergency department of a hospital and to sit for 6 hours in a queue.

Where are you based? I'm in central London and - whilst I agree it has been and could be better - have had no problem getting an appointment. Most of it is app based now, right? I'll message in the morning or the night before, a doctor will video call within 48 hours (usually, but often same day) and will ask me to come in if I need to. Otherwise they'll just prescribe after the call and send the prescription to my local pharmacy.

> they'll just prescribe after the call and send the prescription to my local pharmacy.

Yes, exactly this is all they do now basically, nothing else.

Not sure which app you're using but I've been with Babylon Health for years and it went downhill very much lately.

Before the pandemic I was able to get a call consult within 3-4hrs and book an in-person appt for next day easily.

These days can't get a callback earlier than 2-3 days and bookings for in-person unavailable for WEEKS!

There is functional GP left in London? How about in-person appointments?

I am in East London, Newham, with Doctor IQ app, thats been my experience so far

Hackney, Islington, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich - definitely my experience. People are definitely trying, even if it doesn't always work. Hope you get a bit more lucky next time!

> I wiuld call in as a student complaining about a running nose and would get an appointment withing a day or two.

Why? This seems like a waste and abuse of the appointment system.

> Recently I called in about a serious infection and got told there are no appointment left this month. At all. It was the 2nd of March.

Yes, because of people like you making useless appointments for nothing more than a cold or a sore finger.