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Sun, sea and sand - for many people they're essential elements of the ideal winter vacation.

Now a Burnaby-based company is hoping to add a fourth "S" to the holiday plans of medically neglected Canadians - surgery.

Describing itself as a medical tourism agency, MedSolution is looking for patients in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland who are fed up with long surgical waiting lists and willing to have their procedures performed at overseas hospitals.

"Our business started off about five and a half months ago. The medical tourism industry on the West Coast of Canada and the U.S. is really new," said company spokesman John Knox.

"People don't have to suffer. There is a way out of these waiting lists," Knox said.

MedSolution currently has agreements with hospitals in India, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico, although a pending arrangement with a hospital in Cancun was delayed by Hurricane Wilma last month.

Services offered by the foreign hospitals vary, but the bulk of North American patients are looking for knee and hip replacements, as well as cardiac procedures.

Health care, in particular surgical wait-lists, promises to be a key election issue in the upcoming federal campaign. Nanaimo MP Jean Crowder, the federal NDP health critic, this week pointed out that privately run Copeman Clinic recently opened a for-profit operation in Vancouver and plans to roll out 37 more clinics across the country over the next year.

The Vancouver clinic is a 10-minute drive from Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh's constituency office, Crowder said.

But while the demand for overseas surgeries highlights Canada's struggle to address long wait-lists, it's perfectly legal for Canadian residents to take their business elsewhere.

Under the Canada Health Act, private clinics in Canada can only provide elective and non-essential procedures such as cosmetic and laser eye surgery, there's no law against accessing medical services outside Canadian borders.

"That's absolutely your right to seek whatever health care option you require for yourself," Knox said.

For years, Canadians of sufficient means have sought treatment in U.S. hospitals. MedSolution, however, refers patients to overseas locations where service is comparable but prices are much lower.

Generally, places like India, Malaysia, Brazil and Mexico are 50 to 90 per cent less expensive than typical U.S. averages for the same procedures, Knox said.

For example, heart bypass surgery in the U.S. costs between $60,000 and $80,000.

MedSolution patients can have the same operation for about $7,000 U.S., not including airfare and accommodation. A single knee replacement runs about $16,000 in the U.S. and less than $7,000 at MedSolution affiliated hospitals.

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