Claire Olsen: Kiwi nurse saves $60,000 having robotic hip surgery in India

A nurse who needed a double hip replacement faced a lengthy wait or an $80,000 bill for the operation, and she eventually went overseas to find a solution.

She had robotic surgery in India - which set her back $20,000.

Claire Olsen says it was 'world-class' and pointed out that New Zealand's own healthcare system was 'third-world' by comparison. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What about this. A Kiwi nurse needed a double hip replacement.
If she'd got it in New Zealand privately, it would
have cost her eighty thousand dollars. So instead what she
did as she flew to India and it cost her
twenty thousand dollars plus flights plus accommodation, and she says
it was world class. The nurse is Claire Olson, who's
with us now, Hi, Claire, Hello, would you recommend it?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I absolutely would.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I started my journey in January. I went to my doctor.
I was one hundred and twenty two kilos and I
could barely walk because I needed hit replacements, and he
said there was nothing to he could do for me,
so I had to do something traumatic. I ended up
going to Tijuana and had bariatric surgery and I really

(00:47):
enjoyed the team environment of SET and that was part
of my plan to get my health back. Yeah. Then
when I got home, I've lost twenty five kilos and
I started hopping around for hip replacements. I came up
with a with India. Anyway, Mumbai had been there fifteen

(01:08):
years ago and they had the robotic hip replacement. So
I was very keen on that because I'd had two
knees done and I went through a broker up there,
and that's how I ended up at the hospital. And
was doctor Khan a.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Broker like as in somebody who organized the whole thing
for you. Yes, oh fantastic, And so what do I mean,
you know, being a nurse, you know what god healthcare
looks like. This was great healthcare, was it?

Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yes? It was? And that is why I've had to say,
really we are a bit of a third world country.
The healthcare up there was they just fault not I
couldn't fault it. I'm a little bit of a person
that might faults. But no. The cleanliness, the friendliness, everything

(02:00):
was was just wonderful. In fact, we had so many
visitors because I had a support person with me. We
had so many visitors. We felt like we should set
up champagne and nibbles.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
The visitors care.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
Oh, we had well George George from the kitchen who
came up every day to make sure we had a
choice of food that was suitable for us. Dushner from
the broker. We had lots of people just popping in.
The nurses were lovely and friendly. Almost everybody who spoke
spoke English, but we had the physio and the internists,

(02:41):
and as they didn't speak English or that, we had
Google translate.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, okay, So what do you think was going wrong
with our healthcare system at the minute to make it
so cruddy.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
I've been a nurse for forty years, and I would
just say lack of investment, the elect of investment, and
then started to slide when they took im Look, I'm
an old nest So they started to take training out
of hospitals and that was the downhill in my opinion,
the downhill slide of it all, I don't believe.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
So okay, So this might be the future for people
with a bit of money is to go overseas and
get it done properly and and enjoy a nice stay
in a grand hotel pretty much.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
And I would. So we're looking at taking half a
dozen people aren't and mentoring them through the process and
changing the course of their lives.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
So are you getting involved now as a business?

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yes? Yes? Why not? The cost of it and the
cost of it in comparison, I couldn't come up with
eighty thousand year for New Zealand, I'm sorry, but I
could come up with the twenty thousand.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Brilliant stuff, Claire. Thanks for talking us through it to
appreciated and best of luck with your recovery. That's clear
Olson nurse who had hip surgery in India's now setting
up a business to help you do the same thing.
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