To think that those who go abroad for cheap cosmetic surgery should insure themselves...

[jemenfous37]

...so that when it all goes wrong, which it inevitably does, the NHS isn't left with the repair bill.

Eveyone moans that the NHS is underfunded, many happily blame migrants (legal or otherwise) or govt underfunding etc.

Yet they then expect it to clear up the mess when their tummy tuck/eyelash extension go wrong. Why should the public fund their vanity project - the surgery they thought they'd get on the cheap in a sunny country?

We cannot afford to provide many procedures/drugs that are actually necessary, but hey, why not spend what little we have hoovering up the consequences of vanity and what appears to be terminal stubborness (because it isn't as if people don't know the potential risks, the media has been covering such stories for years)?

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I had weightloss surgery abroad and the care and hospital were far superior to anything ive ever seen in the NHS ( ex nurse). People need to do their research properly before and if we refuse to treat those who do have complications where does it end? Do we also refuse to treat smokers with COPD or lung cancer? Fat people who have strokes and heart attacks? Addicts who cause themselves no end of problems? The reason so many surgeons speak out against it is because it affects their private work! A surgery that i paid £3500 for abroad would have cost upwards of £12000 here!

YABU - with the current state of the nhs it's no wonder people go abroad for surgery. I know folk who have been abroad for hip and knee replacements as they gave up waiting for the NHS. It saved the council a fortune on home care as they've both got their lives back and been able to get on with their lives again. The NHS when it works is wonderful. You can buy insurance for surgery abroad but it's not worth the paper it's written on. The risks surrounding cosmetic surgery are high both here and abroad. Half of the problem is folk never seem to be happy and once they've had one lot of work, they are often looking for the next.

In 2006 I went to Cyprus for an abdominoplasty. (My late F had left me some money. After a new kitchen, I decided to spend something on myself. I had had countless abdominal surgeries, the whole area was a saggy mess. I was a size 8, 8.5st,spent 10 years in gyms, doing specific abs excercise. Nothing worked. I saw, spoke to asked lots of questions of the surgeon. (I had been nursing over 20 years at this point,had worked in plastics , couldn't afford the procedure in the UK. I had the usual holiday insurance, I was aware I was not covered if anything went wrong. Of course flying after major surgery is extremely risky, but I had enough knowledge to be aware, and what to do
I did get a rare complication, I had to return to the surgeon in a London clinic for treatment,then found a local surgeon, private yes,and he did me a cheeky deal. After 12 months,it was evident I needed a surgical review. I wouldn't have dreamt of going to the NHS, this surgeon arranged a deal for me, just an overnight stay,he was happy I would know what to do. This was in one of the well known private hospitals. I had to take an overdraft. I didn't have a credit card, only a debit card. The hospital didn't accept them. I actually took cash! I got a small infection in the second operation,one of those things. Saw my GP had abx which I paid for.

A colleague of mine had surgery via private insurance in the U.K. a couple of years ago. It was medical, not cosmetic. She ended up with horrendous complications and the NHS had to pick up the pieces.

I don’t think that makes her wrong for having the surgery done. All surgery comes with risks.

Is that any different to someone having cosmetic surgery?

Medical surgery is, one assumes, generally necessary. Cosmetic surgery (of the sort done cheaply overseas) is not necessary.

In your opinion.

No, not in my opinion - factually.

Ok then. Can I suggest walking a mile in the shoes of someone with severe mental health issues which have led to food addiction and weight gain, who becomes morbidly obese as a result, with resulting physical health issues and further mental health issues…who goes abroad for surgery despite being on the nhs pathway, which would have taken approx 4 years…has the surgery and the mental and physical health problems are resolved.

Then and only then can you pass judgement

@silverxylophone there are lots of reasons why surgery might be considered necessary- even 'cosmetic' surgery, and if you have such a narrow view of what might be considered 'generally necessary' you might like to have a rethink.

My knee replacement op for example, isn't technically necessary because I could hobble around on crutches for the rest of my life without it I guess, but with it, I will be more mobile, and hopefully much happier for it. By the way my knee needs replacing as a direct result of a sports injury 14 years ago that has seen me 'waste' much NHS resource in that time, trying to manage it.

If someone has tried, for example, to lose weight by diet alone and it's not working, and has been told that obesity is the biggest killer in the U.K., but weight loss surgery has a 3 year waiting list, and they go abroad to tackle the issue, only to have complications, do you still believe that was medically unnecessary?

The same for someone who feels desperately unhappy with their nose - was bullied first years, won't go out, refuses to appear in pictures and who loathes her appearance as a result - and after counselling etc decided that surgery was the only way to move forward, would you say the same?

So yes, your comment was exactly that - an opinion.

Life really isn't as blank and white as you'd like it to be - the nhs is under-resourced - not because of people having surgery abroad - it's because the nhs is treated like a business, not a healthcare service.

If such insurance existed and wasn't priced too highly people would probably happily get it.
Who wouldn't want assurance to be seen privately in the UK afterwards, should there be any complications? But no insurer would insure this, at least not without a premium that would most likely make it not worth going abroad in the first place.

Lipedema and use of WAL is one such example where it is necessary, for quality of life.

Medical and surgery are completely different types of medical conditions.

Travel and private health insurance doesn't cover overseas surgery IME

Exactly. Divide and conquer

Agree, though not sure how it would work. The NHS just treat anyone who presents at a hospital, whether UK citizens or no ( also not acceptable in my opinion). It will never happen but the NHS needs admin which bills and follows up on foreign nationals, cosmetic surgery patients etc. And yes, surely the vast majority of people going abroad for treatments are doing so for pure vanity. Crooked ot actual teeth- coloured teeth, boobs in proportion to your body size, receding hair, etc ad nauseum... vanity.

I did say, of the sort done cheaply overseas - ie where people are going overseas to get their cosmetic surgery done because it is far cheaper, and is seen as a holiday inclusion, etc.

Obviously, when people have knee replacements or some other surgeries mentioned as rebuttals to my point, that is (1) not cosmetic surgery and (2) it is being done to get off an insane waitlist.

I would not regard surgery to remove excess skin after extensive weightloss as cosmetic surgery, that is a health necessity to prevent future infection and skin degradation.

Yes, see my post above. In what world is a knee replacement cosmetic surgery?

I totally agree. Many people who do extreme sports, do already have private insurance.

The NHS is not treated like a business. I spent 40 years nursing. I saw the "health tourism", these people were billed and never paid.. my last ward,a family managed to get a relative, wheelchair bound, completely non communicative,on to a plane, from a care home thousands of miles away. No idea how they managed it,or why the airline allowed it. The hospital just happened to be near a big international airport,it was blatantly obvious from the presentation at the ED, this person had been in this condition a very long time. Most of the family didn't even live in the UK.

Always worth a reminder that (for instance) lots of the 'fat people " I know (because we have a social network for our medical condition) are fat because of steroids, prescribed by the NHS when there are more effective (but expensive) options that wouldn't cause weight gain. I luckily was only on them at a high dose for a few months but in that time I went from size 10 to size 16. I'm back at a healthy weight since coming off them.

Good point, when I lost a lot of weight and was essentially anorexic due to mental health issues people used to praise me ! The kind of thinness and exercise obsession I had being seen as a virtue. And then when I got really thin I was met with sympathy and concern and understanding

Yet when mental health issues leading to a different type of eating disorder that causes weight gain people are judged.

Define 'necessary'.

@WrongSwanson I’m sorry to hear what you’ve gone though and hope you’re recovering x

And you