The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) commanded for the Government to issue clearer guidance to the NHS on treating patients who come to the NHS with disputeds tittle following cosmetic surgery overseas.

BAPRAS says that the NHS is currently providing a safety net for patients going overseas for cheap deals on cosmetic surgery, which takes resources away from patients waiting for reconstructive surgery following cancer or trauma. BAPRAS says that that trend is predisposed to rise in line with the increment of cosmetic tourism and that may have an impact on waiting times for other plastic surgery procedures.

Research published today in the Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery[1] set up almost a quarter of BAPRAS membership (23%) treated NHS patients with complications complementary to cosmetic surgery performed outside of the UK.

In 2007, plastic surgeons saw at least 208 patients beyond the UK for complications after cosmetic surgery abroad. Approximately three quarters of those patients had complications that appropriate treatment. Of these, 26% of patients had to have emergency surgery, 31% opted to have elective surgery to rectify the problem, 33% had nonsurgical treatment as an outpatient and 8% of patients had nonsurgical treatment as an inpatient.

Operations that presented complications uttermost frequently were breast augmentation, with sixtyone patients (29%) coming to the NHS following that procedure, 50 patients (24%) following abdominoplasty, 33 patients (15%) following breast reductions and 22 patients (10%) following a face or neck lift.

The research highlights there is no clear NHS red tape on treatment of these patients for acute complications of their surgery or for elective revisions of their procedures. It points out that the responsibility for aftercare for cosmetic surgery carried out privately in the UK lies with the plastic surgeon conducting the procedure but that is repeatedly not the case within surgery abroad. that means patients returning from cosmetic surgery abroad recurrently look to the NHS to provide aftercare, which inevitably takes resources away from other patients.

Anthony Armstrong, a consultant plastic surgeon and chair of BAPRAS clinical effectiveness committee, said “folks go abroad thinking they are getting a better deal but when details go wrong the NHS is expected to pick up the pieces. The NHS is currently underwriting cut outlay cosmetic surgery overseas thanks to there is no clear behavior in locate on when the NHS should and shouldnt treat patients who have elected to have cosmetic surgery abroad.”

About cosmetic surgery

Cosmetic surgery means operations that revise or silver appearance, colour, texture, structural position of body features to achieve what patients perceive to be more desirable.

About BAPRAS

The British Association of Plastic Surgeons was founded in 1946 and is the professional representative body for plastic and reconstructive surgeons in the United Kingdom. It changed its John Henry to British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS) in July 2006 to reflect better the breadth of the slavery that its affiliates do.

BAPRAS has 770 brothers in total. Anyone can checkup the GMC to find out if a surgeon is on the plastic surgery specialist catalogue; gmcuk.org/catalogue/search/index.asp

About JPRAS

The Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery (JPRAS) covers all the reconstructive and aesthetic aspects of plastic surgery.The journal presents the latest surgical procedures with audit and outcome studies of new and established techniques in plastic surgery including cleft lip and palate and other heads and neck surgery, hand surgery, lower limb trauma, burns, skin cancer, breast surgery and aesthetic surgery.The journal has uptocentury papers, comprehensive review ebooks, letters to the editor and compendium reviews on all aspects of plastic surgery and complementary basic sciences.

About

Elsevier is a appleleading publisher of scientific, technical and medical notice produce and services. conscious in partnership with the global scholarship and good condition communities, Elseviers 7,000 employees in ended 70 offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per year, in attachment to offering a suite of innovative electronic outputs, such as ScienceDirect, MD Consult, Scopus, bibliographic databases, and on the web quotation works.

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[1] Jeevan, R; Armstrong, A; Cosmetic tourism and the burden on the NHS, Journal of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons; 2008 Vol 61, Issue 12, p1423 1424