Private surgery going wrong - NHS stepping in

I think if private surgeons in the UK weren't so expensive then people wouldn't go abroad.

I will have lost 9 stone by Jan/Feb, and have excess skin. By losing weight I have become healthier.

But I have to pay to have the skin removed.

£8000 - Turkey
£15000 / £18000 - UK

I think that health tourists should pay for a health tourism add on to their travel insurance that covers any medical complications if the surgery abroad is unsuccessful. It would cover the dates of travel plus a window after return of say 6 months or something. This would then reimburse the NHS the costs of corrective surgery, or infection/sepsis, and so on.

The insurance companies could then have lists of approved providers of medical procedures abroad. It would be to their advantage to limit pay outs to research who are quacks and scammer luring in Brits vs those who are genuinely good medical practitioners. And Brits would know they have to pick an approved provider to have this travel insurance add on.

This would give health tourist Brits assurance that they’d found a good surgeon abroad with lower risk of complications…which lets face it can be life changing and/or disabling. No one going to Turkey is seriously thinking that a surgeon they picked is a con artist who is going to leave them scarred for life and almost dying once they get home. But it’s not right to leave this 100% in their hands to research alone- w insurance companies can hire professional auditors to do this bit.

This would also mean passing a law that any health tourism medical complications treated by the NHS must be charged to the person on a cost reimbursement basis other than A&E costs to stabilise, save life/limb.

If your private surgery had gone wrong and you were seriously ill, you would have been transferred into the NHS. If it wasn't as serious I believe your surgeon would have needed to 'fix' it in the private system.

My view on this depends on if it is essential surgery- hip operation, cataracts, dental ( non cosmetic) treatment and stomach stapling or similar- versus purely cosmetic e.g. breast augmentation, dental veneers and that sort of thing.

For the former it's a shame that NHS waiting lists are so long that some people feel compelled to spend their own money, but for the latter I do feel annoyed that public money is being used to rectify unnecessary surgery that has gone wrong.

Not sure what the answer is though.

The alternative is letting people die. A lot of people get into debt to go to places like Turkey for operations. I doubt they’d have funds for more private care if things go wrong. To be fair it’s a small percentage of people who need emergency treatment afterwards - and they’ve eased queues in the NHS by going private in the first place.

I had private surgery a few weeks ago which was performed by the same surgeon who would have done it in the NHS and had it gone wrong I don’t know what I would have done because paying to have private surgery here rather than abroad is very expensive.

with so many people opting to go abroad for surgery I think we’re going to see more emergencies - not because it’s done abroad but purely because any surgery is risky. If you pay your taxes in the UK I suppose you have every right to treatment.

On my ward I see at least 1-2 ladies per week who have returned from having cosmetic or weight loss surgery abroad. If it is infection from breast implants the implants will be removed and infection treated but not replaced. The amount of people angry about this is unreal..