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Warnings have been issued to Brits planning on travelling to Turkey for weight loss surgery after seven people died. Turkey has long been known to offer more affordable cosmetic surgery options for Brits – with the average cost of a gastric sleeve being £3,076 for an “all inclusive” package. Some of these packages include hotel accomodation, transport and food while often staying in “five star” hotels.

In the UK, the cost of a gastric sleeve can cost between £7,000 and £11,000 – making it a much less affordable option for Brits.

A BBC investigation into the surgery – which removes more than 70 per cent of the stomach – found people are returning with serious health issues while seven have died from the operation.

The operation is used to treat morbid obesity and while they are available on the NHS, it can take years for the operation to be carried out due to waiting lists.

This is leading more people to travel abroad for the complex operation.

British doctors say that they’re treating an increasing number of patients who have travelled to Turkey and returned with serious complications.

About once a week, a “very unwell” patient arrives at Newcastle Airport from Turkey and is taken straight to hospital, according to Dr Sean Woodcock, a consultant at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr Ahmed Ahmed, a leading surgeon and member of council at the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society, says he’s treated patients returning from Turkey who have had an entirely different operation to the one they understood they had paid for.

There are no records of the number of people who have travelled to Turkey for this kind of treatment.

Joe Thornley, 25, died after travelling to Turkey for the operation. The first his parents knew of his death was when the police visited their home. Officers passed on a phone number for the Turkish clinic – which Mick, Joe’s father, rang.

“The doctor just turned around and says: ‘Oh he had low blood pressure, he had a heart attack.'” A post-mortem examination after Joe’s body was returned to the UK found that he had died of internal bleeding at the site of his surgery.

“We tried to ring the doctor back and he just wouldn’t answer the phone, refused emails, everything,” says Mick.

Joe’s friends say he told them he had been feeling unhappy after trying everything he could to lose weight. His mother says his death was “a nightmare”.

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According to the BBC, some people are being offered the surgery abroad who do not medically require it. In the UK, weight loss surgery is usually only offered to someone with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 40 or over.

After contacting 27 Turkish clinics, the investigation found that six of them were happy to accept someone with a BMI of 24.5. One reportedly said: “You need to gain 6.7kg to have sleeve surgery. I think you can easily eat some food and then lose weight easily.” Another asked: “How soon can you gain weight?”

Dr Ahmed says the practices are “reckless” and “unethical”.

“It’s appalling – I’ve never come across a situation where somebody’s being told to eat more to put their weight up. They should not be offering any kind of surgery at a normal BMI.”

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