Patient Roadshows - The loophole allowing exploitation of medical tourists

Unregistered foreign surgeons are touring Britain, advising potential patients on medical procedures. Despite being unable to carry out the operations in the UK, there is a loophole allowing them to promote their services and encourage medical tourists attending the events to book in for operations abroad, says campaigner Dawn Knight.

Dawn Knight, who is known for speaking out against poor practice in cosmetic surgery, describes the “crazy” loophole that allows these roadshows to occur. “A lot of patients that turn up to these events believe they are being spoken to by a registered healthcare professional,” she comments. “The doctors may not say that they are on the GMC register but they certainly give the impression that everything they are doing is absolutely fine.”

Knight describes how many patients return to the UK in a much worse state than they set off – with several requiring expensive correctional procedures to undo the damage. An audit of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) revealed that 82 patients needed follow-up NHS care after getting surgery overseas in 2021; the estimated cost for these corrective procedures per patient was about £15,000, covering staff time and medication, which puts the 2021 bill for corrective treatment at about £1.2million, and an estimated total cost to the NHS of £5million.

“There is not only the eye-watering estimated costs to the NHS – the other really big worry is that the patients are told to pay a very small deposit to secure a future date via bank transfer and actively encouraged to take thousands of pounds in cash with them when they go abroad, often travelling alone. Although they don’t want to think about things going wrong, it leaves them cast adrift and on their own, and they quite often find themselves in medical danger. We have already had 23 deaths.”

Knight says that several patients have been offered combined surgeries in one sitting, which a UK surgeon would refuse to undertake, due to the associated risks. There are also stories of patients waking up having undergone surgeries they didn’t even ask for. “They’re being asked for more money when they are abroad, and some claim that they are being refused pain relief,” adds Knight. “We are getting some distressing stories from patients who are still in their hospital beds.

“While these procedures are sold as ‘sunshine, have a holiday, get a new body and fly back’, unfortunately, some of the harrowing horror stories that we hear couldn’t be further from the picture-perfect experience that is being painted.”

The roadshows have turned the old ‘fly in fly out surgeon’ model, which is now banned, on its head: “It’s a real concern because these individuals are not visible anywhere in the UK, they’re not on a PSAregulated register and there is little-to-no accountability.”

Knight advises anyone considering medical tourism to pay partially or totally on a credit card. “The credit card has to be in your name and please check your home insurance,” she adds. “Make sure it’s valid at the time you have your surgery. Home insurance policies will have a medical indemnity section, which may get you started with a solicitor, but again, it is incredibly difficult to seek redress from a company abroad that you have travelled to. It’s near enough impossible.”

Campaigners are calling for a law change to make it mandatory for any doctor or surgeon coming to the UK to consult to be registered.

“The doctors will dress this up as something else – ameet-and-greet or a seminar, anything but what it is – and they’re using high status hotels to add kudos to what they’re doing,” concludes Knight. “It does seriously need looking into by the government. These individuals need to be registered somewhere; the GMC, the CQC, and even trading standards need powers to go after and question these individuals far more aggressively than they can now, where they rely completely on the testimony of individuals coming forward.

“Sadly, we’ve seen an increase in patients being threatened when they go to victim support groups and peer groups – the patients are in a bad place when they approach these groups looking for help. There’s an awful lot that needs to change to protect members of the public that choose to become cosmetic surgery tourists.”