Travelling to Us for Surgery

Travelling to London for surgery: how it works

Patients come to our hospital at 95–97 Baker Street from all over England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and from abroad. Almost all our operations are day cases, so you arrive in the morning and go home, or back to your hotel, the same day. With a little planning, most people from outside London need only two trips before their operation, and often just one, plus their follow-up.

The steps are the same as for anyone else, set out in the cosmetic surgery patient journey. What changes is the planning: how you get here, how you get home, and where you recover. Tell your patient coordinator you are travelling when you first get in touch, so your appointments can be arranged around your journey.

How many trips to London will I need?

Usually two before surgery and at least one afterwards. If you are travelling a distance, your face-to-face consultation and your pre-operative assessment can usually be combined into a single visit, which takes you from three journeys to two where it is clinically appropriate. Some people need extra tests or an anaesthetic review first, which may mean a separate appointment.

Ask your coordinator for your follow-up schedule before you book travel or time off, so you can plan the trips together.

Can I have a virtual consultation first?

Yes. A video consultation is a good way to start if you live a long way away: you can discuss what you would like to change, your health and the options, and get a sense of whether surgery is likely to be suitable before you travel. It cannot replace an examination, so a face-to-face consultation with the surgeon who would operate is always needed before surgery. Our guide to your cosmetic surgery consultation explains what happens.

Distance does not change the two-week cooling-off period. We recommend taking at least two weeks after your face-to-face consultation to think before you confirm a surgery date, as the Keogh review of cosmetic interventions recommended^[1]. It is best practice rather than a legal rule, and we recommend it to everyone, so plan for your consultation and your surgery to be separate trips.

Getting to our Baker Street hospital

Our hospital is at 95–97 Baker Street, London W1U 6RN, in Marylebone. For most of the UK, the consultation visit works as a day trip.

• By Underground: Baker Street station, on the Bakerloo, Circle, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines, is a short walk away.
• By train: Marylebone station (trains from Birmingham, Oxford and the Chilterns) is within walking distance. From Euston (Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow), King’s Cross (Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh) and Paddington (Bristol, Cardiff and the South West), the Underground takes you to Baker Street in a few stops.
• By air: Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and London City all have rail links into central London.

See our hospital at 95–97 Baker Street for photos and directions.

What happens on the day of surgery

Your coordinator confirms your arrival time and fasting instructions in the days before. You are admitted in the morning, meet your nurse, anaesthetist and surgeon, and have your operation under TIVA (total intravenous anaesthesia) or local anaesthetic with sedation. Afterwards you rest on the ward until you are ready to go home, usually a few hours later. Our pre-surgery FAQs cover fasting and what to bring.

Compression garments and prescribed medicines are bought separately and confirmed in advance, so collect them before you set off home.

Travelling home after surgery: car, train or plane?

Going home the same day is usually fine, but your surgeon decides case by case, depending on your operation, the length of your journey and how you are on the day, and that advice can change on the day itself.

• By car: the usual way home. You travel as a passenger with your responsible adult: never drive yourself. On a long journey, stop every hour or two to walk around and have a drink of water.
• By train: if you would like to travel by train, ask your surgeon at your pre-operative appointment whether it suits your operation and your journey, and plan to travel with your responsible adult.
• By plane: not straight after surgery. As a rough guide, short flights are usually possible two to three weeks after smaller operations, and at least four weeks after major body surgery such as a tummy tuck, with long-haul flights later still: six to eight weeks after a tummy tuck. Our guide to flying after cosmetic surgery gives the usual wait for each operation. If you would normally fly home, plan to stay in London or travel by land.

Long journeys after surgery and blood clots

Surgery and long journeys both raise the risk of a blood clot in the leg (deep vein thrombosis, or DVT), which is why the timing of a long trip matters. A 2009 meta-analysis in Annals of Internal Medicine found that travel roughly doubled the risk of a clot, with the risk rising by 18% for every extra two hours of travel by any means^[2]. After a long-haul flight, the extra risk is highest in the first two weeks and fades over about eight weeks^[3].

The risk after cosmetic surgery itself is low, and depends on the operation. In a study of 129,007 cosmetic surgery patients in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, clots followed 0.01% of face and breast operations, 0.21% of body operations and 0.28% of combined body and breast operations^[4]. That is why body surgery, and combined operations, need the longest wait before a long flight.

On any journey of more than about four hours in the first weeks after surgery, the NHS advice is to keep moving, drink plenty of water, wear loose clothing and avoid alcohol^[5]. Wear your compression garment if you have been given one. Get urgent help if you notice pain, swelling and warmth in one leg, or sudden breathlessness or chest pain.

Staying in London after your operation

Some people prefer to spend the first night or two near the hospital before travelling home, especially after a longer operation or before a long journey. We have arrangements with several hotels near Baker Street, and your patient coordinator can share the current options and rates.

If you are staying locally, overnight nursing can also be arranged in advance, at an extra charge. It is extra support, not a replacement: you still need a responsible adult with you for the first 24 hours.

Follow-up appointments when you live further away

Most people have a nurse check around five to seven days after surgery and a review with their surgeon at about six weeks. Wound checks and dressing changes are usually done in person; some later reviews can be done by video if your surgeon agrees. Plan these trips when you book your surgery, and keep your coordinator’s number to hand. If something worries you after you get home, call us on 020 7993 4849. In an emergency, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. Our guide to recovery after cosmetic surgery explains what is normal and when to get help.

Coming to London for surgery from abroad

The process is the same, but because flying home has to wait, plan a longer stay: for some operations that means several weeks. Arriving a day or two before your surgery gives you time to rest after the journey, and tell your surgeon if you have had a long-haul flight in the weeks before your operation. Check that your travel insurance covers you after surgery, as many policies ask you to declare it.

If you are weighing up surgery abroad yourself, read about the risks of cosmetic surgery abroad.

Your travel checklist

Distance should never mean less care. If you are travelling, we plan the visits around you, but we will not rush the cooling-off period or send you on a journey home that you are not ready for.

Dr Spyridon Vlachos, Specialist Plastic Surgeon and medical reviewer

References

Guidance comes from the official sources listed.

1. Department of Health. Review of the Regulation of Cosmetic Interventions: final report (the Keogh review). April 2013.
2. Chandra D, Parisini E, Mozaffarian D. Meta-analysis: travel and risk for venous thromboembolism. Ann Intern Med. 2009;151(3):180–190. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-151-3-200908040-00129
3. Kuipers S, Cannegieter SC, Middeldorp S, et al. The absolute risk of venous thrombosis after air travel: a cohort study of 8,755 employees of international organisations. PLoS Med. 2007;4(9):e290. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0040290
4. Winocour J, Gupta V, Kaoutzanis C, et al. Venous thromboembolism in the cosmetic patient: analysis of 129,007 patients. Aesthet Surg J. 2017;37(3):337–349. doi:10.1093/asj/sjw173
5. NHS. DVT (deep vein thrombosis).