The Truth About Having Cosmetic Surgery Abroad

A Short Report Written To Educate You On The Risks, Benefits, Costs & Leve of Treatment That You Can Expect To Receive Abroad
Written for the purposes of Medimel Private Surgery

The Decision

So, you’ve decided that it’s time to free yourself of whatever conscious insecurity has been holding you back and you’re now faced with several options. You’ve already ruled out the possibility of living with your “hang-up” and the only viable solution you have is surgery. You look into the cost of having the surgery done in your home country and see that the costs are pretty astronomical. The surgeon wants to charge a king’s ransom for the actual treatment and the costs don’t stop there. Your aftercare, your accommodation, your travel and other miscellaneous expenses all add up too and before you know it, your dream of being free to enjoy life without a constant burden seems to be almost out of the question. You rule out having surgery at home based entirely on cost and look at other options and then at some stage during the research process you arrive at the idea of having cosmetic surgery abroad. At first, the idea doesn’t sit comfortably. The idea of travelling to a foreign land to undergo what for most people will be one of the more serious procedures they ever experience is daunting. Maybe you’ve heard a horror story or two about people who have left the safety of their own country to pursue more affordable treatment options only to come back bitterly disappointed. “What if something goes wrong?” “Do I really want to put myself at serious risk to save a few thousand?” you ask yourself. You feel deterred and the notion of just living with your insecurity once again enters your mind but you know that really, you have to take action sooner rather than later. You continue to do your research. You find that actually, there’s plenty of success stories online and maybe there’s not too much risk involved at all. You wonder whether that’s really what you believe or it’s simply what you want to believe because you’re serious about transforming your life and starting a fresh. Having surgery abroad is now very much on the table. It’s affordable, it looks as though it can be successful and it now looks like the best option by a country mile.

BUT…

There’s still a few questions you’d like answers too. And honest answers to all those questions can be found here in The Truth About Having Surgery Abroad. Here you’ll find the good, the bad and the ugly. This report isn’t designed to sway you one way or another – it’s designed to let you make an informed decision that you’ll be 100% happy with. By the time we’re finished here, you will know whether surgery elsewhere in Europe is for you or not. Let’s start with some of the most commonly asked questions… Why Is Surgery Abroad So Much Cheaper? In life they say “you get what you pay for” and whilst there is of course an element of truth to that, what they forget to mention is that pricing is always relevant to a specific country. The value of £1500 ($2500) in London is different to the value of £1500 in Szczecin. In London, UK £1500 would barely be deemed a liveable wage. It would not be too much more than minimum wage and you certainly wouldn’t be able to afford your own apartment/home with that salary. In Szczecin, Poland however, £1500 buys an awful lot. It would be enough money to comfortably put you in the Polish middle class and you could expect to have a nice apartment, drive a car and still eat out a few times a month – not a chance you could do that in London! If you’ve travelled anywhere abroad you encounter this kind of economic difference all the time. For example, you could go to a bar in Spain and order a bottle of wine for around ten euros. The same bottle could be double the price in the UK and the wine would taste no different. Overheads (what businesses have to spend on running their business) have a lot to do with the actual cost of a product and the same is true in the world of cosmetic surgery. Here at Medimel, our basic costs are obviously significantly less than that of a similar practice in say, the UK. The cost of hiring suitable premises, paying nursing staff, buying the necessary equipment, maintaining hygiene levels and so on would be drastically higher in the UK and therefore it’s not completely beyond therealms of possibility that if a similar surgery in the UK charged the same prices as we do here in Poland, they’d actually lose money. In a nutshell, having surgery abroad in a country like Poland is dramatically cheaper because you can have an outstanding quality of life here for much less and the costs involved with running a high quality clinic are not sky high so there’s no need to pass the cost of our overheads onto ourcustomers. Note – this only explains the price to a certain degree. You still need to be wary of surgeries that offer treatment that is far cheaper than other surgery’s in their country. Remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Surgeons at Home Vs Surgeons Abroad

One of the most common “myths” you’ll encounter when you research surgery abroad revolves around the quality of the actual surgeons. Many people believe that surgeons that work abroad have not received the same level of education as surgeons who practice in countries like the UK, France & Belgium but in many cases, this simply isn’t true. Every surgeon regardless of what country they offer their treatment in offers a certain level of quality. The UK has bad surgeons, good surgeons and great surgeons. Poland has bad surgeons, good surgeons and great surgeons. Of course there will be more good and great surgeons in the UK because thecountry is bigger and the option to study medical practice is more openly available but the fact of the matter is, you can end up with a bad surgeon in ANY country and nationality has very little to do with it. The level of education and experience of the surgeon is what counts so it’s that due diligence that you need to do before you select your surgeon. You should note that a lot of the top surgeons that practice in countries where cosmetic treatment is much cheaper have studied at well renowned universities and hospitals in more recognized countries. Take our own Dr Ostrowska-Clark for example, she has studied and worked in the UK and has 9 years of experience working under the guidance of one of the best plastic surgeons in Poland. Her credentials and experience more than match her UK, French and Belgian counterparts so in terms of skill, you’d be in a similarly steady, safe pair of hands here. Ultimately, when you decide to book your surgery abroad what you need to realize is that there’s NO surgeons at home Vs surgeons’ abroad battle as each and every surgeon has their own level of skill, experience and quality of care – where they’re from doesn’t really come into it. When it comes to selecting your surgeon, try and find out as much information about them as you can (either from them directly or through their website) and ONLY book yourself in when you’re 100% happy with their credentials. If you’re still asking yourself whether you’ll be safe in their hands, they’re not the right surgeon for you! Having Surgery Abroad – A Major Inconvenience? There’s no doubt that having surgery abroad isn’t quite as convenient as having everything done at home but when you think about the fact that the saving you’ll make is enough to have a holiday of a lifetime maybe you’ll feel as though it’s inconvenience that’s worthwhile. Travelling to and from the surgery is arguably the biggest inconvenience you’ll encounter when you have surgery abroad as you will have to fly. Thankfully, if you’re travelling to somewhere like Poland the hassle is absolutely minimal. A quick flight into Berlin with one of the many budget airlines that operate flights their daily and then a 90 minute mini-bus ride is all it takes to visit us here at Medimel. Most of our patients pay no more than £150 ($250) to travel and we’d imagine it would be a similar story for other surgeries in Poland and elsewhere in Europe. The travelling to the surgery is the easier bit. Travelling back after surgery is slightly more difficult but any surgeon worth their salt will ensure that any discomfort is minimal by the time you travel back. Finding and paying for accommodation can also be an inconvenience but we’d say it’s no more inconvenient than having to arrange the same sort of thing in your own country. As you already know from the Why Is Surgery Abroad So Much Cheaper? section of this report, the cost of everything in Poland is typically a lot more affordable and that extends to hotels. A hotel of excellent quality (4 stars) will cost around £50/night, a hotel of good quality (3 stars) will cost around £35/night here in Szczecin so even with a week’s stay added to your bill, you’ll still find yourself well within budget. Taxis are incredibly cheap here in Poland so getting from your hotel to the clinic and so on is unlikely to make a dent in your budget. The cost of all of the above is fairly insignificant providing you only have to do it once. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to return to the clinic weeks or months after your operation (and yes, it does happen) you’ll have to make the effort to travel back to the clinic and pay the costs of travel and accommodation all over again. This shouldn’t happen if you undergo treatment with a reputable surgeon but make no mistake, the risk is there and you need to decide whether potentially spending an additional £500 to resolve a problem that arises is worth it. The only other real inconvenience you’ll encounter is a lack of English being spoken amongst the nursing staff. If you were to have surgery in the UK, everyone would speak English but here in Poland it’s still only a select few. The important people like the surgeon themselves and their management will speak English but don’t be too surprised if the nurses do not. This can be slightly unnerving in some cases but as a rule of thumb – if you trust your surgeon, you can trust that their nursing staff all know what they’re doing despite the fact they may not speak your language.

The Risks of Having Surgery Abroad

As you’ve probably already established from the initial sections on this short report, there’s good surgeons darted all over the world and when it comes to having surgery, there’s always an element of risk. Is it riskier having surgery abroad? Yes. There’s no escaping that but we’d say that these risks can be heavily reduced by simply knowing your stuff. It’s believed that 8.7% of patients that have surgery overseas require further treatment once at home (a statistic delivered by BAPRAS) and the complication rate stands at 16.5% (a statistic delivered by BAPRAS). Cosmetic tourism is at an all-time high as for many people, the idea of combining surgery with a holiday is an attractive one. Here at Medimel, we don’t consider ourselves a “cosmetic tourism” option as Poland is a million miles away from being most peoples dream holiday destination so those statistics don’t mean a whole lot to us – we’ve just included them to give you an idea of the bigger picture. It seems as though the biggest risks involved with having surgery abroad revolve around the “aftermath” of the treatment. In cases where problems do arise after the operation, patients have to travel back to the overseas clinic for further treatment and this is obviously costly not to mention hassle (as we mentioned earlier). Having corrections done in their home country is an option but it’s likely to be an expensive one as even if they’re living in a country with free healthcare, corrective surgery is rarely free. Correcting mistakes made by an overseas surgeon in a country like the UK with a private surgeon could cost thousands and as taking legal action against an overseas clinic is almost impossible, a “botched” operation would almost certainly result in having to pay close to double the amount initially planned. Now, none of the above sounds particularly enticing to prospective patients but it’s important to remember that these kind of complications rarely occur when you choose an experienced surgeon that knows what they’re doing. We suspect that the 8.7% of people that required further treatment once they arrived at home were the 8.7% of people that went to inferior surgeons because the price was extremely low. The best piece of advice we can give you is to select your overseas surgeon in the same way you’d select a surgeon at home. Don’t dive in head first and don’t make a rash, emotional decision because you’re desperate to free yourself of your hang-up. That’s a recipe for disaster. Okay, now you’re aware of the dangers that present themselves after the surgery let’s talk about the riskier aspects of your actual treatment… Assuming you’ve chosen a quality surgeon with a strong track record you’ve already removed most of the risk as an experienced surgeon will keep you safe and sound even in a “worst case scenario”. At a clinic like ours, there’s several different procedures offered and each procedure has its own complications. It’s wise to ask your surgeon about what complications can occur when you undergo your chosen procedure and what the complication rates so you know well in advance what could potentially interfere with you and a successful operation. Note that any complications the surgeon tells you about could happen anywhere, anytime and they’re not exclusively linked to having surgery abroad so don’t let them scare you. Finally, to really keep yourself safe make sure you have the right kind of travel insurance as “standard” travel insurance doesn’t cover you for having surgery overseas. You’ll need a specialist kind of insurance – especially important if you don’t have a European passport or are considering surgery abroad somewhere like India or Thailand.

The Benefits of Having Surgery Abroad

The main benefit of having surgery abroad is certainly financial. Treatment here at Medimel is typically 50% more affordable than it is in the likes of the UK & France and when you’re spending thousands, that’s a lot of money that you get to keep in your wallet. A lot of people would say that saving a few pounds is where the benefit ends but there’s actually a few more really nice aspects of having surgery abroad. We certainly believe that we offer a higher level of quality and care than some of our more costly EU counterparts as we’ve seen many less experienced, less qualified surgeons offering treatments at a much higher rate. It’s certainly not a science that if you go overseas for surgery you instantly forfeit quality. People are always keen to write about their “bad experiences” but rarely take the time to document success stories and trust us, there’s plenty of those about as we’re talking about a very small percentage that ever have anything bad to say about their experience. There’s also usually less of a wait to have the treatment as you won’t have to jump through as many hoops as you might in your home country. Great news if you’re really excited to see the new you and have already saved enough money to pay for your treatment, travel and accommodation. You may also prefer spending a short recovery period relaxing abroad out of the way of life’s usual stresses and headaches. So if you’re fully aware of the risks involved and would like to…

Save yourself thousands
Experience the same (or better) level of quality, care & treatment
Have the treatment done sooner rather than later
Recover in total peace and quiet

Then it’s time to speak to us here at Medimel as we tick all the right boxes…

Led by Dr Ostrowska-Clark, a surgeon with 12 year’s experience
She has studied and worked in the UK & speaks fluent English
High class private surgery located in Szczecin, near Berlin
50% of our patients are British so we’re used to overseas patients
As our all of our staff so our aftercare is second to none
We have an unrivalled success rate & maintain high standards
Our prices are extremely affordable when compared to most EU surgeries

You can contact Jeremy Clark, the British co-owner of Medimel via email to have your questions answered or book an appointment. Email: jeremyclarkmel@gmail.com

We’re sure that you’ll love walking out of our surgery with a new found level of confidence and happiness so do not hesitate to speak to us today.

If you decide to have surgery abroad elsewhere then we wish you the best of luck and hope this short report has been helpful to you.

 

Warmest Regards,
The Team at Medimel Clinic, Poland

P.S – Here’s a couple of interesting reads that we’ve referenced in this report.

Nowowiejska 1E
71-219 Szczecin Bezrzecze, Poland

+48 500 355 884