Is Surgery Abroad Safe? Risks, NHS Rules and a Checklist for UK Patients

A hip or knee replacement carries the same medical risks in any well-run hospital: infection, blood clots, dislocation (for hips), stiffness, and the small chance the joint needs revising later. Your surgeon should explain these before you consent.

What changes when you go abroad is everything around the operation: how well you can communicate, how your records reach your GP, how you get home, and who you turn to if a problem appears after you've left. Those risks can be reduced a great deal by planning — but they don't disappear.

The NHS guidance on going abroad for medical treatment makes several points every patient should know:

• Talk to your GP before making any final decisions.
• You will have to make the arrangements yourself, including choosing a provider and travel.
• Consider language barriers, how much you know about the team and facilities, and how records and aftercare will be handled.
• The NHS is not liable for negligence or failure of treatment abroad, so know how to make a complaint if things go wrong.
• Most travel insurance does not cover planned treatment abroad; you may need specialist cover.
• Stay long enough to recover before travelling home, and budget for exchange-rate changes, a possible longer stay and possible return trips.

The NHS treatment abroad checklist advises thinking carefully before booking if there is:

• a hard sell
• a lack of information
• pressure to make a quick decision
• no discussion of possible complications
• no mention of aftercare

We would add: be wary of any provider that won't tell you the name of the hospital and surgeon before you pay, or asks you to pay the full amount to an intermediary rather than to the hospital.

Compare the figure you are quoted with the UK equivalent before you decide: what a private knee replacement costs in the UK and how much a private hip replacement costs.

Know the warning signs before you travel:

• Possible blood clot in the leg (DVT): throbbing or cramping pain in one leg (usually the calf or thigh), swelling, and warm, red or darkened skin. Contact NHS 111 or your GP urgently.
• Possible clot in the lung: breathlessness or chest pain, especially when breathing in. Call 999 or go to A&E.
• Possible wound infection: increasing redness, heat, discharge from the wound, or a high temperature. Seek medical advice promptly.

NHS urgent and emergency services are there for you as for anyone else. For anything related to the operation itself, also contact the surgical team abroad — your coordinator should help you do this quickly.

• Written plan before payment: the hospital's name and address, your surgeon, the implant model and your itinerary — so you can check everything independently.
• Payment goes to the hospital, not to us. A 20% deposit secures your date and is refundable if you cancel for an important reason at least 72 hours before surgery.
• EU-regulated partner hospital in Jelenia Góra, Poland, with its own MRI and CT imaging and a rehabilitation department.
• English-speaking team: the hospital's international coordinators speak English, Polish, German and Arabic, and your OrthoVoyage coordinator is with you from the first call to your flight home.
• Records in English and a written rehabilitation plan for your GP.
• After you're home, your coordinator stays in touch and liaises with your surgical team if a concern comes up.