Spain is the number one holiday destination for Brits, with holidaymakers making around 17 million trips there every year.

However, many of those heading to Spain travel with a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) in the belief that it is a replacement for buying travel insurance and travel insurance website, insurewithease.com, warns that this could be to their cost.

British tourists account for almost 30 per cent of all visitors to Spain, but Spanish health authorities, including those in the Balearics and the Canaries, are increasingly refusing to treat European visitors under the EHIC. For those travelling without insurance, medical and repatriation costs could run into thousands of pounds.

Sarah Findlay, online marketing manager for insurewithease.com said: “There is a misconception that the EHIC is a form of insurance cover, but this is not the case. As explained by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the EHIC will not cover repatriation, flight cancellation, lost or delayed baggage or missed departures. The card only covers treatment in state hospitals and does not cover GP consultations or pharmacy prescriptions.”

via Brits travelling to Spain reminded that EHIC is not travel insurance.

Slot machines in Catalonia, Spain, will now display health warnings, in a new project funded by the region’s government. The Guardian has reported that every 30 minutes, slots in casinos in Catalonia will display a health warning, suggesting the amount of time the player has been wagering on the slot. Video lottery terminals, which are essentially slot machines, will also turn themselves off after 90 minutes of consecutive gameplay.

The regional government has also introduced new signage on the casino games, which indicate that players have the potential to become addicted to them. Speaking to The Guardian, Mercedes Claramunt, the director general for gambling and entertainment in the Catalonian government, has suggested that “the message is that too much gambling can create addiction”. While the authorities don’t wish to deter players from enjoying wagering on slots, they do wish to highlight issues which affect a small minority of gamblers.

Claramunt has praised Catalonia’s project, suggesting that “there is no other scheme like this in Europe”. Gambling in Spain is incredibly popular, with residents spending on average £500 a year on lotteries, sports bets and casino games. The state also benefits from the interest in gambling, with the Spanish government recouping £800 million from Spain’s largest lottery, El Gordo.

via Slot Machines to Display Health Warnings – CasinoOnline.co.uk.

68% of respondents favor a total ban on cigarettes and only 16% say they would visit bars less if smoking was banned in them.

With the current legislation, premises over a hundred square meters must have a separate smoking area, but only one in four non-smokers think that bars and restaurants have to have a complete separation between the two areas, according to the survey.

For his part, Dr. Xulio chestnut, a member of the Group Approach to Tobacco Society, further emphasized that the survey showed that 92% of nonsmokers believed that the ban on indoor entertainment premises would improve the health of all . “And they are right, why medical professionals have not ceased to remind the health authorities, although the law four years ago was instrumental, remains insufficient and must be reformed.”

The survey by the Society of Family Medicine has also asked former smokers how they left kicked the habit. 63% received help from a health professional, and of those, 42% had the support of the family doctor, 13% of nurses and 11% of other specialists. Among smokers, 7% had set a target to quit in less than a week, 9% in less than a month and 12% over the year.

Another conclusion is that smokers are less satisfied with their health than non-smokers: 17% of smokers rate their health as excellent, compared with 25% among nonsmokers. And a surprising fact: one in four smokers thought that the smoke does not harm children and that does not produce myocardial infarction.

King Juan Carlos underwent a successful operation to remove a small benign growth from his right lung, doctors said yesterday.

The doctors ruled out any possibility the 72-year-old monarch was suffering from any form of lung cancer after the growth was discovered during his yearly medical tests in late April.

“The medical team considered it necessary to analyze morphological changes in a calcification on his Majesty’s right lung,which had been observed in previous years,” the Royal Palace said in an official communique

Dr. Laureano Molins Lopez-Rodo said after the operation that the nodule removed from the king’s right lung was not cancerous.

“It is not malignant, we have ruled out that it could be lung cancer,” the doctor said.

He said the king was awake and would be able to leave the hospital in three or four days, before returning to non-physical activity in around two weeks.

The king used to be a heavy smoker but has not been seen smoking in public in recent years. The palace declined to say whether he had stopped.

Spain tops the list of countries in which UK holidaymakers fall ill, the survey by health product Bimuno found.

Greece and Egypt are the next destinations where Britons are most likely to be laid low with a holiday complaint.

The poll of 3,000 people found that as many as 70% of Britons fall ill while away, with 40% suffering diarrhoea, 20% food poisoning and 10% sunstroke.

In addition, 20% had an accident while on holiday and 27% had to visit a doctor while away.

The poll also showed that 25% have avoided visiting a country through fear of falling ill due to water, food or cleanliness, while 75% admitted over-indulging in local cuisine.

Also, 22% do not always get the required jabs before visiting a foreign country and 25% do not bother with travel insurance.

The survey revealed that 64% of British travellers rely on doctors or pharmacists in a foreign country to be able to speak English.

via Spain tops for holiday ailments – Offbeat, Breaking News – Belfasttelegraph.co.uk.

The Barcelo Santiago Hotel – a four star property on the island of Tenerife – has seen internet forums deluged with complaints following the outbreak, which has seen several patrons hospitalised.

Posting criticism on Trip Advisor, Jacquiya, said: “We didn’t realise the extent of the problem until we were recovering and then we became aware that many people were going through the same as us.

“It was very disappointing. We had looked forward to this holiday for a long time.”

The view was supported by NUFCCo_Durham, who said: “My wife passed out on three occasions after being sick and I had to call the doctor out.

“By the following day, I had started with diarrhoea and later that evening I was also violently sick. The appetite goes; the thought of food just makes you want to be sick again.”

However, there were also a number of positive reviews of the property.

Issuing a statement in response to the outbreak, management at the hotel argued different areas of Tenerife had also been affected.

A statement said: “The affected tourists are mainly of one nationality and the sickness symptoms apply normally in the first few days of arrival which lead us to think that probably they had got the virus prior to arrival in the most of cases.

“Therefore, our hotel is one of the safest and less affected, so it should not be considered as an infection point, but it should only be considered the destination of few people that possibly were sick before arriving to the hotel.”

The hotel also pointed out strict disinfection procedures recommended by the local health authorities had been rigorously applied.

This view was supported by a spokesman for Thomson, one of the operators whose customers visited the resort.

A statement read: “Outbreaks of the airborne norovirus are common, particularly within contained environments such as hospitals, nursing homes and schools and an outbreak in a hotel or resort is therefore not indicative of a failing in hygiene standards.

“Prevention of spread of infection procedures have been implemented since February and an independent hygiene consultant confirmed the hotel was operating to the highest standards.”

via British tourists struck down by virus in Canary Islands | News | Breaking Travel News.

The Health Service Executive was alerted to the fact that a number of passengers were acutely ill on the flight before it arrived from Tenerife at 10.30 pm on Saturday night.

Because the emergency departments at hospitals in Cork city were already very busy doctors travelled to the airport to assess the situation. Passengers remained on the plane for an hour while the 15 holidaymakers who complained of feeling unwell were assessed.

Ten decided themselves not to go to hospital even though they were invited to do so. They were sent home with appropriate advice. The other five were sent to Cork University Hospital and the South Infirmary Victoria Hospital. They have since been discharged.

Dr Chris Luke, an emergency medicine consultant who saw the patients at the airport, said their sickness had been compounded by turbulence on the flight. While initially it was thought the passengers might have “airport food poisoning or even airline food poisoning” it later became clear this was not the case, he said. “It transpired with investigation that probably most people were ill before they went to the airport (in Tenerife) and there seems to have been a bit of a norovirus or a winter vomiting virus going around in Tenerife because a lot of them were discussing or describing how other members of their parties or families had had medical attention in Tenerife before returning home so there seems to have been quite a deal of sickness in Tenerife,” he told the Marian Finucane programme on RTE Radio 1 today.

Several hospitals have curtailed visiting in recent days due to outbreaks of the winter vomiting bug. On Friday Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital banned all visiting to wards as part of its efforts to contain an outbreak of the bug.

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According to researchers, sunbathing boosts the male sex drive. Scientists at the Medical University of Graz discovered that men with more vitamin D in their blood had more testosterone than men with less levels of the main male sexual hormone.

The study shows that blood levels of both dipped in the winter and peaked in the summer. Low testosterone levels may impact on a man’s libido.

A spokesman for the Sunlight Research Forum said, “Men who ensure their body is at least sufficiently supplied with Vitamin D are doing well for their testosterone levels and their libido among other things”.

via Sunbathing boosts male sex drive  | Momento 24.

Criticism is not directed at those who register their residency status and pay taxes, but at expats in the black economy who expect to get treatment by producing a European Health Insurance Card (Ehic), which is designed for the emergency care of holidaymakers.

Some of the many thousands of Britons who regularly flip between homes in Britain and Iberia are also thought to arrange trips according to where they may get the best treatment, or jump waiting lists.

Politicians have been concerned about healthcare “freeloaders” for several years, but Spanish doctors have been more muted.

They have to decide what is “emergency” treatment and what isn't and, according to anecdotal reports, have tended to take the patient's word.

But Spain's health budget is as much under pressure as the NHS and the SiMAP move reflects fears among Spanish doctors of further belt-tightening. Cutbacks are bound to raise questions about the availability of resources for patients.

The Spanish regions – which are autonomous in matters of health provision – have moved to prevent foreign nationals exploiting “free” healthcare.

The last to take this step was Valencia. Two months ago, it introduced measures by which expatriates below retirement age and not registered as employed would no longer get free access.

They are now paying a €90 (£80) monthly tax, which will cease once they reach retirement age. The move brings Valencia into line with the rest of Spain – and France, where President Sarkozy took similar steps in 2007.

But thousands of British men under 65 and women under 60 are still thought to be working unregistered in Valencia, the Costa del Sol and other expat strongholds.

via Spanish doctors fight expat ‘freeloaders’ – Telegraph.

The HPA is aware of 14 confirmed cases of the gastrointestinal infection.

All the confirmed cases are adults and four people are known to have been admitted to hospital after returning to the UK – two have been discharged.

The agency is working with the Spanish health authorities to investigate the cases of the illness.

The HPA will conduct interviews with those people affected in the UK to help identify a possible source.

After being infected by the E. coli bacteria it usually takes three to four days before symptoms develop, but it can be between one and 14 days.

Symptoms experienced by people with E. coli O157 can vary from none through to having mild or bloody diarrhoea.

A small minority – mainly children – can experience more severe symptoms such as kidney failure.

The HPA is advising any travellers who have recently returned from Benidorm and who suspect that they may have the E. coli O157 infection to contact their doctor as soon as possible.

The agency also said in a statement that as the source of infection has not yet been identified, it is possible that future cases of E. coli O157 linked to the Spanish resort may be identified in the coming weeks.

via BBC News – Benidorm E. coli strain cases investigated in the UK.