Hello to you all in sunny Spain.

My parents live in Spain and my mum recently found out she has skin cancer - not life threatening but needs sorting.
They came back to the UK for a break and the doctor diagnosed skin cancer.

My question is she wants to come back to the uk for treatment (cause its free) but I think she would be better off having the treatment done in spain and paying for it.  It will probably be more cost effective as she may need to travel back to the UK 4/5 times and the cost to do this I feel will be expensive? 

Has anyone got any advice for me to give to her?

Im a worried daughter…....

cheers x

Paula Hi…
I can only speak as the husband of an English lady who had to enter a Spanish hospital under emergency conditions. Because my wife was here on holiday and is normally resident in the UK she was able to use her UK issued EHIC card to cover the costs.
TBH I believe that your Mum would be better off physically and financially, receiving treatment in the UK.

Does she have any form of Health Insurance in Spain?

Will she able to communicate with the doctors, nurses and nursing aides in Spain…?  On the Costas lots of the specialist doctors and consultants can speak English but are reluctant to do so for fear of making a mistake. Most of the nurses cannot, and since it is they who provide the support and aftertreatment, communication is essential.

From my wifes experience I can say quite categorically that trying to communicate in Spanish is very difficult when the patient is dosed up on pain killers and other meds.

You also need to consider that nursing support out here is totally different from that at home… family and relatives are expected to provide basic non-medical support like bathing and feeding, supervising if necessary toilet visits, changing bedpans and the like.

Depending on the severity of your mum’s condition the treatment could possibly involve surgery and radiological treatments… time consuming and I would imagine painful. Expensive too… Spain might not have reached the astronomical charges made by US hospitals but if she hasnt got Health Insurance you could well be looking at a second mortgage to cover the costs… the bill for my wifes surgery and aftercare came to something in excess of 10,000GBP. As I said she was able to cover it with her EHIC card but this was only because; a) she was on Holiday and b) because she had broken her hip and damaged her pelvis and was unable to move…

Seriously, I think your parents would be best off temporarily ‘shutting up shop’ in Spain and returning to the UK and staying there until she is given the all clear.

I know airfares UK-Spain-UK and transportation costs can be expensive, but I really do think she doesnt have a lot of choice…

Not what you want to hear I know, but having been there, done that and got the teeshirt, thats the advice I would give you.

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So if she lives in Spain what is her normal Spanish healthcare arrangements?