Retirement and Care tourism - the way of the future?

Back in 2006 I was writing about options and incentives to retire to India - better weather and far less expensive cost of living.

In the past 8 years the quality of care in the UK has certainly not got better and probably a lot worse as local councils cut their funding and availability of care provision.

If it were not for the subsidy that private payers are forced to make then the UK care position would be a lot lot worse.  Of course it is only a matter of time before the number of mixed private/public care homes decline and the enormity of the funding gap is made obvious for all to see.

The BBC recently reported about the way more Europeans are choosing to send their elderly relatives to Thailand.

This is a web site of such an organiation in Chiang Mai. 

My guess is that this trend will grow in pace. We might well see some of the established UK care providers opening utility level care resources in these countries for the wave of older people that will be flooding through the system in the coming years that will be totally dependant on the state.

Knowing something about the UK care sector they are not the most innovative bunch so this might be a step too far. If they don't provide the service I am sure others will. Dick Stroud