The Sunday Times - 19 Feb 2006
Prague is vying to become the cosmetic surgery capital of Europe as thousands of foreigners – many of them British – arrive for cut-price facelifts, breast enlargements and tummy tucks.
With many fees only a third to a half of those charged in private clinics in Britain, the Czech capital is benefiting from a global boom in “health tourism”. As recently as 1997 there was just one clinic in the city treating foreigners; now there are more than 100.
A 63-year-old nurse from Newcastle, who gave her name only as Anne, who organised the treatment through Beauty in Prague, a Czech-based company, has just had eyelid surgery and dermatological treatment. She said that she was attracted by the possibility of combining her surgery with a few days’ shopping.
„One day I looked in the mirror and decided that what I saw wasn’t me. I paid £2,000 in total and would have paid three times as much in the UK for the same procedures,“ she said.
For others, travelling abroad also provides much-needed anonymity. „I told everyone I was going to Prague on holiday,“ said Jane, 50, a counsellor. „When I came back everyone commented on how well I looked but no one knew the real reason I was there.“
The Czech Republic has a long tradition of plastic surgery. Professor Francis Burian, a Czech, is regarded as one of the pioneers in the field and Europe’s first plastic surgery faculty was opened at the city’s Charles University in 1920.
Would-be aesthetic surgeons must undergo five years of special plastic surgery training on top of five years of general surgery after first taking their six-year medical degree.
The boom is more about economics as the Czech Republic and other recent European Union entrants realise that low labour costs and top-class equipment and training can allow them to take business from clinics in western Europe. Germans, in particular, have long travelled to Hungary for cut-price dental work, while Polish crematoriums lure foreign clients with cut-price deals.
Other press releases
- Free Boob Job Abroad
- Strangers paid for my boob job abroad
- Sleeping Beauties
- The Nip and Tuck Tourist
- Patients Beyond Borders
- Plastic Fantastic - plastic surgery in Prague
- Interview with Dr Kment about Liposuction
- A Closer Continent
- Beauty
- Health Tourism: Luxury for the masses
- Cosmetic Surgery - What you wanted to ask
- Liposuction in leading role
