Calls for urgent regulation of weight loss surgery tourism after 28 Britons die from medical complications in Turkey

Medical tourism for weight loss is rising in popularity, with around 5,000 Britons a year travelling overseas for cut-price surgery.

But experts have warned the industry is putting patients' lives at risk and is in urgent need of regulation.

Botched surgery can lead to infections “leakage, sepsis, and even death,” a report by the BMJ highlights.

At least 28 British people had died between 2019 and March 2024, due to complications from elective medical procedures performed in Turkey figures provided by the Foreign Office revealed.

Dr Jessica McGirr of the Obesity Research and Care Group RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland and Imperial College London highlight that although cheaper often these packages do not cover care after the operation or long-term nutritional or psychological support that you would be offered in the UK.

An inquest into 40-year-old Hayley Butler, a dog groomer from Norwich who died of organ failure after a sleeve gastrectomy at the Ozel Gozde Hospital in Izmir, revealed the surgery “had not been done properly”.

A doctor Tanveer Adil, who works at Luton & Dunstable Hospital, explained she died as a result of the procedure and the "lack of safety netting" afterwards.

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Source: The Independent, 16 July 2025