The number of patients travelling abroad for cosmetic and plastic surgery has increased massively over the past 2 years. With reduced costs and the surgeries coming under the guise of being a “holiday”, it’s more enticing than ever to head overseas and get cosmetic surgery. But, with this rise in patient interest, there has also been a 44% increase in the number of reported complications from patients who have undergone cosmetic surgery abroad.
It’s important to remember that all cosmetic surgery comes with a risk, but it’s easy to get lured into heading abroad where the prices are cheaper, meaning that more and more patients are opting out of the surgery in the UK for treatment in another country. But, there are plenty of advantages of having cosmetic surgery in the UK.
Doctors Are Regulated and Insured In The UK
There are some advantages to having cosmetic treatment overseas and one of the biggest is the costs. Typically, cosmetic surgery is a lot cheaper in countries such as Turkey, but this is for a reason. In the UK, plastic surgeons and doctors are regulated and insured, which comes at a cost, but this means that these doctors have to go through very strict procedures and regulations in order to perform surgery.
You know that if you choose to have cosmetic surgery in Manchester, for example, the standards of the surgery are very high and the doctors and healthcare providers involved in your surgery are regulated, too. The same can’t be said for hospitals abroad that offer the same treatments. All doctors in the UK are regulated by the GMC, whilst if you choose to have surgery at a private hospital, they are further regulated by the CQC.
Get Support When Needed
For most patients who head overseas for plastic or cosmetic surgery, they are very unlikely to be offered any form of patient aftercare. In most cases, they are often discharged just a few days following their surgery, from which they then travel long distances on planes which can have implications on the healing process. Should anything go wrong with their surgery once they get home, there is unlikely to be an aftercare service available for them to use.
By having surgery in the UK, you can rest assured that you have access to reliable support and healthcare providers as and when required. There are many people involved in the process when it comes to any kind of surgery, not least plastic surgery, from anaesthetists to surgeons and nurses to admin staff, so you know that you’re getting the best possible care.
Quality Treatments & Results
Hospitals abroad that offer treatments often try to offer everything and everything and this doesn’t mean that they are specialised in all of those areas, they simply trying to increase the number of patients they get, therefore increasing their revenue. Even if surgeons aren’t specialised in providing certain treatments, they often will try anyway, leaving the patients at risk of complications and poor results.
In the UK, there are different surgeons who specialise in different cosmetic procedures so that, if you are looking for a certain procedure such as a breast augmentation in Manchester, then you can usually get one in, or around, that certain area from a qualified and experienced surgeon.