The list of services on offer ranges from the fantastical to the painful, the eye-watering to the bizarre.
There are organ replacement procedures to obesity surgery, Brazilian butt lifts to hair transplants and full body MOTs. This is not the body modification menu of a sci-fi novel, but packages for sale at the Health Tourism Expo – a two-day sales conference for surgical alterations held in London last month.
The event was teeming with doctors and hospital representatives staffing promotional stands, many of them from Turkey where clinics attract thousands of British tourists looking for surgical alterations at a lower price, with flights and accommodation thrown in.
Among the exhibitors at the QEII Centre – a conference venue set back from Parliament Square, where tourists pour in and out of Westminster Abbey – was the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies – with many agencies it represents offering to coordinate flights and hotels for those undergoing operations. Chambers of commerce from other cities and towns were also there, proudly advertising the number of hospitals and clinics in their area.
The gathering of travel agents and clinics for the expo is symbolic of the boom in surgical tourism in the UK. According to data from the Office for National Statistics, the number of British residents leaving the country for medical treatment increased from 234,000 in 2021 to 348,000 in 2022.
There is no suggestion that any of the clinics exhibiting at the London expo have been involved in malpractice, but while the business of surgical tourism appears to be booming, one aspect of the industry seem to be missing entirely: regulation of promotional events such as this one.
The Guardian has learned that the event, which featured 74 exhibitors marketing directly to the public, was not subject to any scrutiny by UK health, advertising or business regulators, something experts believe needs to be urgently addressed to protect patients.
The offer of complex and costly treatments at a cut price and without waiting times may seem compelling for British consumers, but experts who have seen an increase in the number of people needing medical care to address botched surgeries have warned about the seeming lack of oversight in this relatively new marketplace.
According to data from the Foreign Office, six Britonsa died in Turkey in 2023 after medical procedures, while data from the British Association of Aesthetic and Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) has revealed the number of people needing hospital treatment in the UK after getting cosmetic surgery abroad increased by 94% in three years, with 324 patients requiring surgery once they returned home in the four years to 2022.
The BAAPS report, released in November last year, added that procedures carried out in Turkey accounted for more than three-quarters of such cases in the preceding six months, with the cost to the NHS estimated at about £15,000 per person – although it noted there was significant variation depending on the treatment each person required.
Marc Pacifico, the president of BAAPS, said the lack of oversight of events such as the Health Tourism Expo was concerning. “I think it is truly remarkable that an exhibition like this seems to fall between the cracks of all the UK regulatory bodies that are responsible for healthcare and the safety of patients,” he said. “I would have thought it would be common sense for there to be some sort of oversight.”
Bodies including the General Medical Council, the Care and Quality Commission, the Department for Business and Trade, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency all told the Guardian that the Health Tourism Expo did not fall under their auspices.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said doctors must be clear to potential patients whether they were licensed to provide medical advice in the UK, noting it was a criminal offence in the UK for a doctor to falsely give the impression they held registration or a licence. But, they added: “These are marketing events and as such are not within the remit of health regulators.”
The ASA said it regulated the content and targeting or placement of adverts for surgical tourism. An investigation at the start of the year led to the banning of 13 adverts targeting people in the UK from foreign-based cosmetic surgery clinics after they were found to have broken rules, including failing to make potential risks clear, trivialising the decision to undergo surgery, and making misleading claims about safety and doctors’ credentials.
However the ASA said it could not regulate events such as the Health Tourism Expo. “We also don’t cover promotional material on the stands inside the expo,” it said.
The Guardian understands providers marketing their services to UK-based patients, including at trade shows, must ensure their marketing complies with UK consumer law, even if treatment takes place overseas.
It means that surgical tourism customers – some of whom have been left with life-changing injuries as a result of bad work – are protected by the same law that protects consumers should they buy a defective kitchen appliance. Experts have said that is not enough.
“If something goes wrong with your body, you can’t get it fixed by your local electrical retailer,” said Omar Ahmed, a consultant plastic surgeon and spokesperson for the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. “You’ve got one shot at it, and if it goes wrong, you’ve got no you’ve got no redress, so to speak.”
Mark Soldin, a consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in London, said St George’s hospital in the capital, saw about one patient a week with complications from procedures associated with medical tourism. Soldin added he was concerned that aggressive marketing could adversely affect patient choices, and said events such as the Health Tourism Expo should be regulated.
“It has to be led by government with tighter regulation and laws preventing money-oriented health companies from adversely influencing patients,” he said.
ALZ Grup, the organiser of the Health Tourism Expo, has been approached for comment.
