EXCLUSIVE: Dr Leah Totton has admitted she sympathises with why people choose to go abroad for surgery but has urged them to rethink and revealed the issues they may face with ‘unsafe’ surgeries
The Apprentice winner and doctor to the stars Dr Leah Totton has urged people to rethink going abroad for cosmetic surgeries. The celebrity surgeon explains to the Mirror that people are choosing cost over safety – but admits she sympathises with the decision.
Each year, thousands of Brits jet abroad for cheaper cosmetic procedures, often at a huge fraction of the cost of what they would pay in the UK. But this comes with substantial risks.
And that’s something Dr Leah is keen to change. “The main driver for this [surgeries abroad] is price,” she tells us. “So we have to be mindful and understanding to a certain degree that for a lot of people the prices for cosmetic surgery in the UK are not affordable.”
But she says that while there are good doctors overseas, some of the time people will find themselves in unsafe situations. She went on: “If the price was the same and if it was affordable to have surgery in the UK, very few people would be boarding a 4.5-hour flight to go to a country where they’re not speaking in their first language to have surgery.
“No patient would choose that inconvenience. This is something that has been created, in my opinion, by the pricing of UK surgery.”
And she admits that this issue got more prominent post-COVID. She explains how the boom in such surgeries abroad has been largely post-COVID in her opinion following a rise in cosmetic surgery prices in the UK .
Dr Leah, who is a renowned medical doctor and highly accomplished cosmetic specialist and the founder of the award-winning Dr Leah Clinics, said costs in this country are “the highest level that they’ve ever been” since COVID, and says they’ve remained at that level.
She says: “So, you know, we can criticise patients and try and better educate not to go abroad. But the the reality is it’s been driven by the prices of safe surgery in the UK.
“So I think that’s something that we as an industry need to look at.”
But giving her insight onto going abroad for such work, she admits: “Do I think that patients should do it? No, I think it’s unsafe.
“I think there are some very good surgeons in Turkey, there are some not so good, but the main problem is the aftercare, because if something goes wrong, and the reality of any operation, any surgery, is that you can have complications, not just immediate complications, you can have intermediate complications, and you can have longer term, later down the line presenting complications.
“So to not be in the same country as your surgeon, I think is what’s fundamentally problematic, and I would advise patients against it.”But she admits she refuses to condemn patients for their decision. Instead, she offers her advice. “My advice to patients would be, if you can’t afford it, you should try and save up and find a reasonably priced UK surgeon rather than taking that risk.”
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