Warren Schlosser plans to pay $20,000 for hip replacement surgery in Singapore. (CBC)

A Singapore company is holding seminars in Calgary, offering patients who are on years-long waiting lists quick hip and knee replacement surgeries — and some sightseeing.

Parkway Health, which owns three hospitals in Singapore, has been in the city touting its medical tourism packages since the weekend.

"We realize that there's a certain group of people, of patients … in Canada that has a long waiting time," said Kamalijeet Singh Gill, Parkway Health's chief marketing officer.

"The day they arrive, maximum within 24 hours, they're operated on. If it's a spinal surgery, within three days they're out of the hospital," he said of the care offered at his Singapore hospitals.

After patients are discharged, they embark on sightseeing trips to explore the country.

"So patients might think about, 'Hey, why don't I take a vacation, fly down to a foreign country like Singapore, get the procedure done, at the same time sightsee, bring my wife, bring my loved one with me, have a holiday at the same time.' "

Gill said patients from Alberta and Quebec are increasingly opting to fly to Singapore, at an average cost of $12,000 for some spinal procedures and $16,000 for hip replacements.

Calgary seminar signs up 6 patients

Warren Schlosser, who lives in Calgary, has been living in pain since a bad crash ended his trucking career two years ago.

He needs a new hip but said doctors in Calgary told him he would have to wait two more years.

Schlosser was told the surgery in Singapore would cost him about $20,000 — or 40 per cent less than what he'd pay in the United States. He's heading to Singapore in six months.

"You hit a point where the money doesn't mean too much if you can't utilize it or if you have to live in pain," he said. "You've got no mobility, like your world is ... a table-top high and you've got to rely on a wheelchair to really become mobile, to go to any functions."

Gill said on Monday that six Calgarians have already signed up with Parkway Health. About 240,000 out-of-country patients fly to Singapore every year for surgeries, he added.

Dr. Glenn Comm, a former president of the Calgary and Area Physicians Association, said it's a sign people are becoming increasingly desperate.

"It's a sign of a system that was cut back beyond what was reasonable many years ago and they have never restored the capacity," he said on Monday.