An investigation claims that at least seven British patients have died following weight loss surgery in Turkey. A BBC investigation made the shocking revelations after patients went there to gastric sleeves fitted.
A sleeve gastrectomy is where a large part of the stomach is removed so it is much smaller than it was before. This means people cannot eat as much as you could before surgery and they feel full sooner.
A combination of long NHS waiting times for the procedure or the prohibitive cost of having it done privately in the UK means many Brits are going abroad instead. A huge number of adverts for the procedures on social media are also thought to be influencing people to have surgery.
British doctors say that an increasing number of patients who have travelled to Turkey for the operation are returning with serious complications. The investigation found at lest seven British patients had died since 2019 after having the procedure in Turkey.
Dr Ahmed Ahmed, a leading surgeon and member of council at the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society, says some patients are undergoing a different operation to the one they understood they had paid for.
Treatment can cost as little as around £2,000 - far less than the £10,000 charged by some private providers in the UK. There are no records of the number of people who have travelled to Turkey for this kind of treatment.
In the UK, weight loss surgery is usually only offered to someone with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or over. The BBC contacted 27 Turkish clinics to see if they would accept someone for treatment who was considered to have a normal BMI of 20 and 25.
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Six of the clinics approached were happy to accept someone with a BMI of 24.5 for extreme weight loss surgery. One said: "You need to gain 6.7kg to have sleeve surgery. I think you can easily eat some food and then lose weight easily." Another asked: "How soon can you gain weight?"
Speaking about some places encouraging weight gain, Dr Ahmed said: "It's appalling - I've never come across a situation where somebody's being told to eat more to put their weight up. They should not be offering any kind of surgery at a normal BMI."
The Government recommends that those travelling to Turkey consider risks and after-care needs. However, there are concerns that patients will continue to travel for the cheap procedures while long NHS waiting times continue.
