milo clinic

As promised in my last blog , I am very keen to share my thoughts with you on this contentious topic which at times seems to be an obsession of the “gutter press” in this country . As usual I do not intend to mince my words and will tell it like it is, and hopefully in the process I can guide you through the peaks and troughs and the pros and cons of the wierd and wonderful world of plastic surgery, botox treatments or any aesthetic procedures abroad.

As you probably already know dear reader,  I have just introduced a “Plastic Surgery in Croatia” service at the Milo clinic which is a second to none service with a second to none surgeon and great value for the beleaguered pound sitting in your pocket. We  live in tough economic times, so if that dream operation (and dream holiday for that matter) seemed a bridge too far, we hope to provide a safe solution of the highest quality.  To read more about our service  click on : http://www.miloclinic.com/plastic-surgery-Croatia.aspx , or read on..

So lets take a worst case scenario the like of which the media love: —You decide that years of eating too much and exercising too little have caught up with you and you read a wonderful article in the Tatler magazine about a wonderful operation called liposuction. You decide that this is exactly what your love handles and bloated tummy need and you “google” for  plastic surgeons in this country. You find that the price range for this procedure extends from £5000-£8000, you nearly faint and you start to give up on your dream operation. But hang on just one minute, google throws up some pages for plastic surgeons operating abroad, and at just 20% of UK prices! Call now! Say the adverts. Although quite suspicious you call a number for plastic surgery in Prague. A wonderful if slightly “pushy lady” answers the phone, and even though you continue to be suspicious, a few phone calls later you agree to a price of £2800 for the operation in Prague, and the price includes 1 week of acommodation and flights too! It just seems too good to be true, and before you know it you have parted with a 50% deposit for the procedure. A few weeks later you are on a flight to Prague, and the jitters begin. What am I doing? Where am I going? Is this a con? How do I know that the surgeons I will be seeing are any good? Anyway , after a few communication problems, worrying moments, a surgeon who speaks poor English, and a “cold war” like hospital, you have your operation and everything seems OK after all. One week later you are back in good old Blighty and you visit your GP to check the wounds. At first your GP is reluctant to examine you as you had your procedure abroad, and when he does your nightmares begin. The scars are big, red and weeping. The GP prescribes antibiotics and recommends that you contact your surgeons. You try to call that same “pushy lady” , and after 5 attempts nobody answers. All your worst nightmares have just begun.—

A scary story you will agree, and similar stories  do appear  in our national newspapers frequently. Are they true? Well before I go on, I must tell you that there are many reputable companies sending patients to reputable clinics throughout Europe and further,  but yes unfortunately I am sure that many such cases have taken place, and continue to take place, and indeed plastic surgeons based in this country always latch onto such “horror stories” with great gusto for obvious reasons. They point out that as a result of botched up operations abroad, the NHS has to take an unfair brunt and heavier workload. The UK surgeons point out that plastic surgery abroad is very risky, unsafe and that one of the main problems is that the patients get no follow up care once they return to the UK. I agree with many of these points, and some of the stories I have heard coming out of countries such as India and Poland would scare even the bravest “plastic surgery tourist”!

 The UK plastic surgeons, who of course see the increasing number of companies offering surgery abroad a real threat,  also try to point out that Aesthetic Plastic surgery is of a much higher standard here in the UK than elsewhere in the world, and here I have to draw a line and disagree quite strongly.

When my father Prof Bosko Milojevic opened THE first private Aesthetic Plastic surgery clinic in that part of Europe  back in 1967, Aesthetic Plastic surgery practically didn’t exist in the UK. My father would often tell me that  plastic surgery in the UK was not the most developed at that time,and was lagging behind many other European countries, and this was due mainly to one simple fact  which was that the UK population of the 70s and 80s had an attitude of “wanting to grow old gracefully”.  Vanity in this country is really a fairly new phenomenon of the 90s and naughties, fuelled by our wonderful reality TV and celebrity culture. So you see, the tradition of Cosmetic Plastic surgery in countries such as Croatia  (where they have been naturally vain for much longer!)  is much older than in the UK, and hence quality really can not be questioned.

So it’s simple, if you can find a top quality surgeon abroad whom you trust totally, and a beautiful holiday destination to boot, it really could be a match made in heaven. So yes, this dream really can be made a reality, just make sure you really KNOW where and to whom you are going.

I really don’t mean for this blog to sound like a big advert for the Milo Clinic (even though it blatantly sounds like one!), but I have written it in the hope that I can help our patients by offering them an option of “plastic surgery abroad”  which they can trust completely and which can hopefully save them some of the heartache described earlier in this blog. My old firend and partner, Dr Vlado Boric, who will be performing the surgeries in Croatia, was a pupil of my father’s, so the unquestioned quality and the meticuolous attention to detail are guarateed. Botox in Croatia? Well that will be me! Follow up, if there should be any problems when you return to the UK? Well again, yours truly will be at your service in London’s Harley street! Not yet been to the Mediterranean pearl of Croatia? Well this really could be that “dream holiday” in every way..

To find out more details on “plastic surgery in Croatia” and to see some tips on how to avoid the usual pitfalls,  click on: http://www.miloclinic.com/plastic-surgery-Croatia.aspx .

See you soon for my next blog!�