NHS Underwriting Overseas Cosmetic Surgery

In the United Kingdom The British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) has suggested that the government consider disseminating guidance to the National Health Service on what is becoming a bit of a sticky subject. There has been quite a bit of coverage in the British press of late concerning overseas cosmetic surgery. BAPRAS is concerned about how the NHS treat patients who are experiencing problems as a result of having undertaken procedures abroad.

BAPRAS argue that by treating problems caused by UK patients undertaking cosmetic surgery procedures abroad resources are being removed from patients in the UK waiting for non cosmetic plastic surgery.

Recently data published by the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery found twenty three percent of BAPRAS membership have treated NHS patients with complications as a result of procedures performed outside of the UK.

The report suggested that in 2007, plastic surgeons saw at least 208 patients across the UK for complications caused by botched foreign cosmetic plastic surgery. Of this 208 twenty six percent required emergency surgery, thirty one percent opted to have elective surgery to remedy their initial surgery, thirty three percent had non-surgical treatment as an out patient and eight percent had non surgical treatment as in patients.

The report goes on to highlight that the most frequent issues were due to breast augmentation procedures as seen in sixty one percent of patients, twenty four as a result of abdominoplasty, fifteen percent for breast reductions and ten percent as a result of face or neck lifts.

As we said at the top of the post there has been a fair amount of anti foreign cosmetic surgery rhetoric in the UK media of late, how much of this is PR in order to put people off travelling abroad for their surgery and protecting the livelihoods of UK surgeons we do not know. We are also unsure at the moment how many people are travelling abroad for cosmetic surgery each year and therefore how much of a percentage of that number the incidents in the Journals article represent. We also wonder how many complications result from UK elective cosmetic surgery each year, and again what percentage this represents. All questions that we will be thinking about and hoping to report back on in the near future.

Whatever the answers to those questions, one thing is clear; complications can arise as a result of elective cosmetic surgery on occasions no matter which country the procedure is performed in. In order to avoid complications it is extremely important for all procedure candidates to do their homework before choosing their surgeons. Make sure you are aware of the correct qualifications the surgeon should have to perform your chosen procedure, and that the qualifications are up to date. Ucompare cosmetic surgery have examples of checks that should be considered as do many of the websites of the worlds leading plastic surgery associations, so do the homework and do not become a cautionary statistic no matter which country you choose to have you surgery in.