Foreign Body

The modern phenomenon known as "medical tourism" is the theme of Robin Cook's latest novel Foreign Body. Americans who require expensive surgical procedures are traveling to India where there are modern hospitals that will perform the operations for less than half the cost of hospitals in the USA. Even with travel costs to account for the patients can still acheive considerable savings. The Indian hospitals that offer this service are modern, state-of-the-art establishments with first class staff and were set up solely to cater for this market as few Indians themselves could afford to use them. An American company that owns a string of hospitals in the USA is alarmed at the way that potential customers are being lured away and are determined to put a stop to it. A small group of ambitious young executives are given funds and set about the task of ruining the reputation of Indian hospitals with ruthless zeal. They plan to scare away potential clients by producing a death rate that will portray the Indian hospitals as unsafe. Mr Cook has produced another of his ingenious plots backed up with all the medical jargon needed to provide verisimilitude which is hardly surprising as he is a qualified medical practitioner. This book is just the thing for passing a rainy day but not if you are waiting to be called into hospital for surgery.