You have found the surgeon, been quoted an incredibly low price by what appears to be a reputable company that specialises in organising operations abroad, and amazingly you can have the procedure done next week, followed by a week on the beach. Should alarm bells ring? They should, according to Angus Wallace, professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Nottingham, who has written in the British Medical Journal about the different standards of working practice employed by surgeons overseas.

Professor Wallace warns patients that travelling abroad for operations is not as clear-cut an option as it first seems. In fact, he believes, it can be a lottery in which the unlucky patient could find himself in the hands of an inexperienced or poorly qualified practitioner: “If you are getting prompt service overseas, the doctor you are seeing obviously is not in demand locally. Many doctors abroad, particularly in Europe, provide excellent surgical care, but those providing the best are already overcommitted with long waiting lists.”

In theory, Professor Wallace says, the enforcement of European-wide medical standards should mean that care and facilities are similar to the UK. But the reality is different. In the UK “quality control” is high, he says. “I know for a fact that some countries’ technical expertise, levels of medical training, surgical procedures and aftercare are significantly worse than those in UK hospitals, and that is worrying,” he says. “The laws and practices are often different from those in the UK, meaning that standards of surgery and the equipment used can be of inferior quality.” For example, he says, hip-replacement operations are often cheaper abroad simply because cheaper, lower-quality replacement joints are used.

There is also the risk of developing deep vein thrombosis if you fly a long way to or back from hospital after, say, a hip replacement and the fact that patients are more likely to pick up infections and diseases when abroad. This was reported in a recent survey commissioned by Norwich Union Healthcare, which found that a third of doctors had noticed an increase in the number of patients contracting illnesses while overseas. “In your own country you develop resistance to disease,” Professor Wallace says. “In foreign countries you are more susceptible even to the bugs in food.” Getting compensation if an operation goes wrong is also difficult, plus “UK hospitals may be reluctant to take on problems created by hospitals overseas”.

However, it is not all bad news. “Looking for a company on the web that specialises in medical procedures abroad is not the way to find a surgeon,” Professor Wallace says. “But if a doctor or patient gives you a recommendation and you can check the doctor’s qualifications and experience, then it is an option for some people.” Laser eye surgery abroad seems to get particularly good reports, he says.

And while in an ideal world all UK patients would be treated on the NHS and nobody would have to risk harm by heading abroad for an operation, “we must remember that not all foreign surgeons are bad and some are very good indeed”. The trick, he says, is sorting the chaff from the wheat.

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