Last October, Wayne Vautier packed his bags and flew 4,000 miles from the west coast state of Oregon in the United States to tropical Trinidad and Tobago.

Vautier stayed at a guest house on the outskirts of Port of Spain for five days. But unlike other tourists who come to the Caribbean for the sun, sea and sand, Vautier came to save his life.

He had prostate surgery at Westshore Medical, a private hospital located on the Western Main Road, Cocorite.

Vautier was a medical tourist-leaving the richest, most technologically-advanced nation in the world to have an operation done in a developing country.

He is among a growing number of sick people making use of affordable and high-quality private sector health care in Trinidad and Tobago, a country where citizens have little good to say about the public health care system.

Dr Lall Sawh, consultant urologic surgeon, was part of the team that operated on Vautier.

’This has been going on for many years, and it has built momentum with time,’ he said of cases like Vautier’s.

’Over the past ten years, I have operated on patients from Grenada, Guyana, Barbados, all the little islands. In particular, St Vincent because I operated on the (former) prime minister of St Vincent, James Mitchell and that opened a floodgate for patients from those islands because he made it known that he came to Trinidad and had very successful surgery.’ Sawh said in an interview last week.

Over the last ten years, Sawh said, he had operated on more than 100 foreign patients.

Why are foreigners seeking private sector health care in T&T?

’We offer very high-end surgeries at low-end costs, especially if you compare it to American costs which is phenomenally high,’ said Sawh.

’When you look at the cost package, even if you factor in the patient’s travel expenses and hotel, it’s really not expensive. Technologically, we are more advanced than all of the other Caribbean islands at the private-sector level.

’We have all of the equipment in urology that they have all over the world, and we update as soon as they come on, the same does not stand for the local Government sector,’ he said.

Sawh said they-the private hospitals-which also offer cardiovascular and gall bladder surgeries-get most of their patients from the other Caribbean islands because of referrals on the quality care provided.

’And the best referral is not a doctor’s but a patient’s referral because they have first-hand knowledge,’ he said.

Sawh said though Trinidadians complain about high costs of medical care at private institutions, the local costs are but a fraction of the cost paid internationally for the same service.

Hence the reason Vautier, who had no medical insurance, came to Trinidad. His visit was the result of a collaborative effort between Vautier’s doctor, Arnon Krongrad, a well-known urologist in Aventura, Miami; Sawh and Westshore Medical.

Sawh said Krongrad came to Trinidad to talk to the medical fraternity about laparoscopic surgery-the new type of prostrate surgery-and while he was here, suggested a collaboration.

’So I said we will show you (Krongrad) what we have, and if you think it is fine enough, why don’t you bring your patients here,’ said Sawh.

Krongrad was given a tour of both Westshore Medical and the Southern Medical Clinic.

’He was absolutely astounded by what he saw. He was trying to develop a network with Santo Domingo, but when he saw what we had to offer, he said it was ready-made and wanted to test it.’

’So we agreed that he test it with his own patient, and this is how the first US patient accessed care here.’

Sawh said the only ’hitch’ Vautier experienced during his time in T&T was the roof of the guesthouse where he stayed was too low for him.

’Every time he had to go through the door, he had to bend.’

’The surgery was so beautiful. They flew in on the Wednesday; Friday morning, we operated, Friday lunch time, we were done; Saturday, the patient was out of the hospital and on Sunday evening, they flew back to the US.

’We are very proud that we can provide such a service in a country where in the early days, no one would think of coming to Trinidad for medical care,’ he said.