Fancy spending a couple of weeks away in the sun covered in bandages? Increasing numbers of Brits are drawn to package holidays with a difference - you get a facelift thrown in, too.
They sell the concept of luxury accommodation in an exotic location combined with a surgical "makeover". Companies such as Gorgeous Getaways, Nu Look Surgery, and Surgeon & Safari are part of this trend in destinations such as Capetown, South Africa, tropical Cairns in Queensland, Australia and Eastern Europe.
Stuck for a Christmas present? Buy her a new nose. Even honeymooners are choosing to spend the first precious weeks of their marriage under bandages.
The pairing of a luxury holiday on the one hand, with invasive surgery on the other, may seem distinctly unnatural. Rather like grafting an elephant's trunk on to a hippo. How, when one is bandaged, bruised and on powerful painkillers, is one meant to enjoy the beach, cocktails and limbo dancing? And sand in your stitches has got to be bad news. But the marketing message is clever and, clearly, seductive to many.
Take this example from Gorgeous Getaways website: "Our new Ultimate Makeover package is a great combination of surgery treatments, products and pampering so you feel and look wonderful, and return home with that inner sparkle."
And what is included? Instead of the familiar holiday options of full/half-board, scuba or snorkelling you can choose to have a tummy tuck, breast enlargement, or a facelift plus liposuction.
Afterwards, you spend 14 nights in a five-star resort. But then you go home, thousands of miles away from the doctor who performed the operations.
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons is strongly against such holidays. Douglas George, consultant plastic surgeon and president elect, says: "As a surgeon I frown on holiday surgery and am amazed that people go for these deals. Customers have no idea of the standards of care in the country they are visiting and no knowledge of the abilities or experience of the surgeon.
"Counselling for the patient may also be inadequate. Follow-up is difficult. Complications do occur and are usually left to the British system to pick up."
Not so, according to Louise Cogan of Gorgeous Getaways: "We have sent nearly 100 British people through surgery, and have not had one complication in terms of surgery error or infection.
"We have a manager in the UK who is a registered nurse, who can counsel prior to departure and follow up after the patient returns home.
"Most problems occur in the days immediately after surgery, so we give clients the utmost care and attention and ensure they are healed and happy when they go home." Anyone who has ever gone under the knife for any reason knows that the post-operative period is dominated by pain, sutures, bruising, antibiotics, and scabby wounds - all of which are distinctly lacking in "sparkle".
As consultant plastic surgeon Adriaan Grobbelaar points out: "People seem to forget that during the recovery period, nobody feels like a holiday."
So why would anyone think that this is remotely attractive?
There are two answers. The "soft" answer is that the reality of surgery, and all of its attendant risks, has been subsumed by the drive to conform to society's ever more fantastical standards of physical beauty. A survey by the Aziz Corporation earlier this year reported that a quarter of women in business would consider cosmetic surgery if it would boost their career prospects.
In what must count as one of the most audacious triumphs in marketing history, cosmetic surgery has become, like chocolate or new shoes, an indulgence we "deserve" (more than 90% of cosmetic procedures in the UK are performed on women.)
Surgery is no longer a necessary treatment for serious diseases, approached with caution and dread; it is a lunch-hour pick-me-up, like a manicure. It has become "something I do for myself". Apparently, this is a more powerful message than all of the warnings from professional medical bodies, and the risks of disfigurement and even death.
The "hard" answer becomes obvious with one look at the price list. The cost of a surgery holiday, including the stay in a luxury resort, is comparable with the cost of a single procedure carried out in the UK.
But Adriaan Grobbelaar says: "Cheap can be expensive. If patients need things put right, or are worried and need a follow-up consultation, they may have to fly back. That additional cost can wipe out the original saving. Alternatively, they may have to pay a surgeon in the UK to review the procedure or the NHS gets burdened."
At the moment, the surgery tour operators are based outside Britain, and no mainstream UK tour operators say they are prepared to touch it.
The combination of tourism and medicine raises interesting issues for consumer rights.
An ABTA spokesman says that customers need to understand that the surgery will not be included in the insurance it provides for its members. If anything goes wrong, the customer is on their own.
It gives a whole new meaning to "buyer beware".
· Contacts: baaps.org.uk
abta.com
