A SENIOR MEDIC has said she is seeing up to two patients per week in her hospital in Dublin who have returned after botched surgeries abroad and require urgent medical attention.

Professor Helen Heneghan is a consultant surgeon at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin. 

Speaking to The Journal following her appearance at the Consular Forum organised by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Heneghan said she and her colleagues have seen a dramatic increase in people coming to them with major complications from surgeries abroad.

In 2022, the Department of Foreign Affairs dealt with 1,500 new cases of people in trouble abroad. Among those cases were several medical emergencies. 

The Forum brings together people from key agencies and organisations including international travel, health and security bodies that regularly liaise with the Department of Foreign Affairs to assist Irish citizens who find themselves in trouble abroad.

Medical tourism

Heneghan said that there has been a rise in cases of people getting into difficulty when they go abroad for cheaper cosmetic, dental and weight loss surgeries.

“The term medical tourism covers a host of things from cosmetic interventions such as skin surgery, breast augmentation, tummy tucks and liposuction.

“Those would fall under the umbrella of what we call aesthetic or cosmetic just for looks purposes only.

“Then there’s a huge issue of dental tourism, hair transplant, and bariatric (weight loss) surgery. They’d be the main things that people in Ireland travel abroad for because of the cost here or the waiting list point of view,” she said. 

Heneghan said that there are people travelling abroad for surgeries where there are no complications, however, she added: “But enough people are having problems, significant complications, for it to be really concerning.”

Heneghan’s area of expertise is bariatric surgery – this is the surgery which can be used to reduce the weight of some chronically obese people. She said she has seen an increase in people presenting at St Vincent’s Hospital with significant problems following foreign surgery trips for the procedure.

“There’s a really lengthy waiting list for that in Ireland, some people are waiting for over five years to be seen in the weight management clinic in Ireland, such is the demand for it and the fact that it has been poorly resourced until very recently.

“People who know they would benefit from the best treatment for obesity, which is the surgery, are taking it into their own hands and identifying where they can get it done for a fraction of the cost compared to if they had to pay for the equivalent in Ireland,” she said. 

Heneghan said she has seen significant problems with the surgeries including leaking wounds, infections and even problems that cause blockages inside the digestion system which could prove serious if they are left untreated. 

The process is lengthy in Ireland, the doctor said, because patients must go through months of assessments to determine their suitability for the surgery. This is not being done abroad. 

Heneghan said that she has great concerns about the surgery itself, especially about “the quality of the equipment used” which may affect the patient afterwards. 

“There certainly are compromises in terms of the post-operative care. We would place somebody in the near equivalent of a high-dependency unit or with very, very close monitoring by experienced nurses in Ireland.

“That’s completely missing in some locations abroad. For the most part, patients can be monitored in hotels after these operations which isn’t, ever appropriate for major abdominal surgery,” she added. 

‘Five a week’

Heneghan explained that there are large numbers of people contacting them ahead of their trips but the number of people coming with significant problems after they arrive home is substantial.

“In Vincent’s alone, there are one to two a week coming in with serious problems. I’d say around the country, there are four to five a week, but it could be much higher and with outpatient care there are upwards of 10 times that in referrals for routine follow up. 

“Our clinic alone gets up to 20 referrals a week for routine follow up care for people who’ve gone abroad. And I suspect that’s just very conscientious people trying to do the right thing to get follow up. Most people don’t even give it a thought,” she added.