Plans have been drafted by the European Commission which will allow British travellers to buy hospital or dental treatment anywhere within the EU.

Titled ''health tourism'' it will allow many consumers within the EU the flexibility needed to move back and forth from home to holiday home without having to worry about escalating medical costs.

There is a market for this proposal as latest figures show at least a million Britons live in Spain alone, most returning frequently to the UK.

As it stand Britons who spend less than six months a year in the UK are denied access to the NHS except in emergencies.

The Department of Health have issued a warning to the news however by stating that any plans to upstage the NHS would not be tolerated.

"We are absolutely committed to ensuring that, where UK patients choose to travel abroad for care, the NHS retains the ability to decide what care it will fund," a spokesman said.