Obesity in Scotland: Weight-loss surgery overseas is no quick fix and can put your life at risk – Stephen Jardine

In a week of awful statistics, it had a lot of stiff competition but the fact that 60 Scots each month are flying to the Turkish city of Izmir for bariatric weight-loss surgery is as grim as it is depressing.

Exercise and eating fewer calories is the best way to lose weight (Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

During a cost-of-living crisis where food banks are booming and many are struggling to put meals on the table, flying across Europe for an operation to tackle your obesity surely means something is broken in modern Britain.

Scotland performs fewer weight-reduction surgeries than many other countries, instead requiring the patients to go through a lengthy programme of weight-loss management. However those who won’t wait are increasingly turning to foreign clinics for help.

A quick search online reveals several offering bariatric surgery for heavily discounted rates, as low as £2,000. However there are no bargains when it comes to weight loss.

As the NHS website explains, without a hint of irony “make sure you weigh up any potential savings against the potential risks”.

Every month, doctors here are left to sort out the problems after surgery abroad goes wrong. Last year NHS Lothian dealt with 33 urgent referrals for medical help for people following botched weight-loss surgery abroad.

“In the last three months we've had two patients that have stepped off a plane and been admitted to hospital and they are still in hospital,” said Andrew de Beaux, a consultant surgeon and the weight-loss surgery lead for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. “It's frustrating on all the levels in terms of why couldn't we look after them at NHS Scotland and then the need to travel so far away, in a sense risking their lives for a goal of losing weight,” he added.

The big issue seems to involve lack of after-care. Here patients who have bariatric surgery leave with special diets of easily digestible food and then go through a series of follow-up appointments delivering nutritional and psychological advice to ensure the experience really is life-changing.

In contrast, those travelling to Poland or Turkey for surgery are soon on a flight home after the operation and lack the aftercare necessary to ensure the operations are both safe and effective.

Desperate people will do desperate things but, as fad diets have shown down the years, there really is no shortcut to losing weight aside from increasing exercise and reducing calorie consumption.

We live in a society geared towards instant gratification. Feel a bit peckish? No problem, here’s a jumbo chocolate bar with the calorie count in such tiny print, it might as well be invisible.

Similarly, those opting for bariatric surgery abroad are looking for an easy solution that simply doesn’t exist.

The NHS insists on a number off hurdles before anyone is eligible for weight-loss surgery because it is expensive and complicated and requires long-term follow-up, often over several years if it is to be effective. At a time when resources are scarce and the health service is under great pressure, that is quite right.

Searching the internet, booking a flight and putting your faith in a foreign clinic is risking your life but also failing to address the issues that caused the problem in the first place. That may sound unpalatable but it is true.