Britain can blame WFH for a rise in botched boob jobs

WFH may be to blame for a rise in Britons being left botched from cheap cosmetic surgery abroad, experts say.

Eighty-two patients needed follow-up NHS treatment last year after going overseas for boob jobs, tummy tucks and other procedures.

This was up 44 per cent on the year before, when the pandemic first kicked off and foreign holidays were effectively scrapped for staycations.

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), which uncovered the figures, is calling for No10 to crackdown on foreign surgery.

It wants ministers to make travel insurance compulsory for anyone who chooses to undergo trips for cosmetic procedures.

The BAAPS claimed the surge in demand for cosmetic surgery is down to the lack of local surgery available and ‘enticement’ of cheap foreign deals.

It also blamed the uptick on the so-called ‘Zoom Boom’ — the demand for aesthetic procedures driven by increased awareness of one’s appearance on screen.

Reality TV star Katie Price last summer travelled to Turkey for liposuction, when the Government had the country on the ‘red list’. It meant that people should not visit ‘except in the most extreme of circumstances’. Geordie Shore’s Chloe Ferry underwent breast reduction surgery in Turkey in 2020

Throughout the pandemic, surgeons noted more patients citing their appearance on video calls as reasons for their dissatisfaction with their bodies.

Noses and wrinkles seemed to be the most common complaints generated by the phenomenon, dubbed ‘Zoom Dysmorphia’.

Experts say video calls can distort people’s appearance from how they really look — creating the illusion of a wider face and a broader nose.

Mary O’Brien, who is president of the BAAPS, said: ‘Patients travel abroad mainly for cost saving.

‘As such they gloss over expertise and the higher complication rates associated with lesser expertise puts the patients and NHS at a burden on their return.

‘This could be addressed with compulsory travel insurance.’

She added that increasing the cost would ‘make them think twice about a decision that could have serious, if not lethal, consequences’.

Government advisers estimate approximately 63,000 Brits travel abroad for medical treatment every year.

And the practice is only ‘becoming more common’, according to the National Travel Health Network and Centre.

Turkish clinics even brag about boob jobs being half the price as ones performed in the UK, with price tags of as little as £2,500.

Reality TV star Katie Price last summer travelled to Turkey for liposuction, when the Government had the country on the ‘red list’.

It meant that people should not visit ‘except in the most extreme of circumstances’.

Geordie Shore’s Chloe Ferry underwent breast reduction surgery in Turkey in 2020.

The 82 patients who required follow-up NHS corrective care in 2021 included seven men.

The BAAPS said complications included life-threatening problems such as the need for emergency surgical removal of dead skin tissue and admission to intensive care because of infection.

Angela Perkins, who travelled to Turkey in 2021, paid £8,000 for a face lift that went disastrously wrong.

The procedure left her with a disfigured face, meaning she will now have to pay over £30,000 for multiple surgeries to correct her eyes, ears, cheek and neck.

She said: ‘If someone had told me how much the decision to go to Turkey could have cost me financially, physically and emotionally I would never have got on that plane.

‘The last 16 months of my life have been a living hell.’