NHS staff are “picking up the pieces” after botched obesity surgery patients return from abroad with complications, doctors say, as around 5,000 travel abroad each year for cheaper cosmetic operations.

NHS staff must “pick up the pieces” of a surge in surgical tourism which has seen patients return to this country needing help for complications, doctors say.

The British Medical Association said more people are dying or requiring emergency care in the UK after traveling abroad for cut-price obesity surgery.

The crisis is causing delays in routine care, including hip and knee replacements.

Around 5,000 people a year travel abroad for obesity surgery, where the procedures can be significantly cheaper.

The British Medical Association said more people are dying or requiring emergency care in the UK after traveling abroad for cut-price obesity surgery (file image)

Doctors said the Internet made it easier than ever for people to arrange operations abroad, and social media increased the desire to perform cosmetic surgeries.

Professor David Strain, of the BMA’s scientific board, said: “You can get infections and the problem is that people come back and ask the NHS to go back to procedures that were done to less strict standards than we apply in the UK. United Kingdom”. .’

The BMA’s annual meeting in Belfast backed a motion “expressing concern” about surgical tourism and agreed that more weight management services are needed in the UK, partly funded by an increase in sugar tax on drinks sodas.