NHS spending up to £19k a time treating people suffering after overseas surgery, research finds | NHS
According to research, the NHS spends up to almost £20,000 per time treating people who have suffered serious setbacks after undergoing medical procedures abroad.
Hospitals are having to “pick up the pieces” when things go wrong for the growing number of Britons traveling abroad for bariatric surgery, breast augmentation or other operations.
According to a study published in the journal BMJ Open, up to 53% of those who do so end up with complications such as infections, organ failure and wounds that don’t heal.
Some people need a stay in intensive care, further surgery and large amounts of antibiotics in order to recover from botched treatment they paid for in another country, researchers have found.
Patients have ended up in a British hospital for up to 45 days due to complications after weight loss surgery and even longer – 49 days – after cosmetic surgery.
It costs NHS hospitals between £1,058 and £19,549 to treat such cases, according to a review of the evidence undertaken by Welsh researchers led by Dr Clare England of Health Technology Wales.
Professor Vivien Lees, vice-president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “Too often people are lured in by discount offers and brilliant online marketing, only to return with serious, sometimes life-changing, complications.
“When things go wrong, the NHS is left to pick up the pieces, often in emergencies and without full information about what surgery was carried out or by whom. This puts patients at risk and adds avoidable pressure to already overburdened services.”
Dr England and colleagues analyzed 37 previously published studies of 655 patients treated by the NHS between 2011 and 2024 for post-operative complications linked to surgery abroad. Most had undergone weight loss (385) or cosmetic (265) surgery.
The total number of Britons paying for medical treatment abroad is unknown, but at least 348,000 are estimated to have done so in 2022, the newspaper said. Women represent 90% of health tourists and their average age is 38 years, but their ages range from 14 to 69 years only.
Turkey is by far the most common destination, accounting for 61% of all such trips. People also travel to have tummy tucks, hip or knee replacements, eye surgery and dental work.
Cheap airfares, online advertising from overseas medical providers and difficulties in getting help from the NHS have led to a rise in medical tourism over the past 20 years, researchers say.
“Treatment of complications due to subsequent medical tourism may be costly and made more complicated because complete information about the initial surgical procedure may not be available,” the journal adds.
Andrew Rankin, a trustee of the Joint Council of Cosmetic Practitioners, said the demand for cosmetic procedures “is largely driven by social media in a way that creates inappropriate body image concerns, often endorsed by celebrities, which misleading advertising then capitalizes on.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Too many people are lured abroad for cheap cosmetic procedures, only to return home with life-changing complications which – as this report shows – end up costing the NHS thousands of pounds. »
Last year it launched a campaign in association with TikTok to warn potential medical tourists to be aware of the risks involved as part of an attempt to improve the safety of cosmetic treatments overall.
