What to Ask Before Surgery Abroad: 21 Questions, and the Answers That Should Worry You
Twenty-one questions to send before you pay a deposit — each one paired with a good answer and a bad one, so you can grade the reply you actually receive.
Before surgery abroad, ask twenty-one questions covering candidacy, who operates, technique, complications, recovery, what happens if it goes wrong, and money. The questions matter less than the answers: a good team names people, gives ranges, admits limits and puts terms in writing, while a weak one offers reassurance, guarantees and urgency. Send the questions by email so the replies exist in writing, and treat vagueness about who operates or what the quote excludes as a finding, not an inconvenience. These questions help you judge a provider — whether the operation is right for you at all is a separate conversation with a clinician who has examined you.
- Ask who they would decline. A clinic that declines nobody is selling, not screening.
- The operating surgeon's name, the revision policy, the quote's exclusions and who carries medical indemnity cover should all exist in writing before you pay a deposit.
- Bad answers form a pattern: vagueness about people, certainty about outcomes, urgency about money.
- Ask where you would be treated at 3am on the second night. If there is no named hospital and no named on-call clinician, that pathway does not exist.
- Tell your own doctor at home before you travel, and check what your own health system and travel insurance will and will not cover — not after something has gone wrong.
Most “questions to ask” lists stop at the question. That is the easy half. Any clinic can be asked anything; what tells you who you are dealing with is the shape of the reply. So each question below comes with two things: what a competent, honest answer tends to sound like, and what an answer sounds like when the person replying is selling rather than assessing.
These questions help you judge a provider. They cannot tell you whether an operation is right for you, or whether the one you have been offered is the correct one — that judgement needs a clinician who has examined you and seen your history, ideally one who is not being paid for the surgery. This is general information for comparing teams, not medical or legal advice. Discuss the decision itself with your own doctor before you commit to it.
How to use these questions
Send them by email, before the consultation, not during it. Written replies are slower and less charming than a video call, which is exactly the point: you get to re-read them, and you keep a record of what was promised. If a clinic will only answer by phone or WhatsApp voice note, that is itself information.
You do not need all twenty-one answered brilliantly. You need to notice the pattern. Good teams are specific about people, cautious about outcomes and relaxed about being questioned. Weak ones reverse all three: vague about who does what, confident about results, and impatient with you for asking.
Copy the questions into one email. Add a line at the top: “I am comparing two or three teams and I would like written answers before I book anything.” Then note who replies. If a patient coordinator answers the clinical questions and the surgeon never appears in the thread, ask directly for the surgeon’s own answers to questions four to twelve.
1. Am I actually a candidate?
Q1. Who would you decline for this operation, and why am I not in that group?
This is the single most useful question on the list, because it forces a threshold into the open. Every real procedure has people it is wrong for. A team that has never turned anyone away is not screening.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| A specific list of exclusions — uncontrolled medical conditions, current smoking, weight thresholds, unstable mental health, expectations the operation cannot meet — followed by which of those were checked in your case, and how. | “We can help everyone.” Or being told you are a perfect candidate before a single test result exists. Or the question being converted into a compliment about your suitability. |
Q2. What do you need to see before you can confirm I am suitable, who reads it, and when?
Assessment done properly happens before your flight is non-refundable, and can still change the plan.
A good answer sounds like: a named list of investigations, a stated point at which they are reviewed, the name or role of the clinician who reads them, and an explicit statement that surgery can still be cancelled or altered after results.
An answer that should worry you: photographs only, tests done on the morning of surgery “as a formality”, or no scenario at all in which results change the plan.
Q3. What are my alternatives, including doing nothing, and what happens if I wait a year?
Non-surgical options and watchful waiting exist for most things people fly for. A team that cannot describe them fairly is not the team to judge whether you need the operation.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Alternatives described with their real limits, an honest account of what waiting costs and does not cost you, and visible comfort with you taking months to decide. | Alternatives dismissed in one line. Time pressure of any kind: a price that expires, a surgical slot “about to go”, a discount for booking this week. |
2. Who operates, and who does what?
Q4. Which surgeon will perform my operation, and where is their specialty registration listed?
“Our surgeons” is not a name. In many countries a doctor’s registration and recognised specialty are publicly checkable through the national medical regulator, and where such a register is published you can look yours up yourself. What the register contains, and whether it is open to the public, varies by country — so ask which regulator holds the entry as well as the name.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Full name, specialty, and where the registration can be verified — plus a statement that this name appears on your consent form and will not change without telling you first. | “You will meet your surgeon on the day.” “We cannot confirm for scheduling reasons.” The name released only after a deposit. |
Q5. How many of these do you perform in a year, and what share of your practice is this operation?
Volume is not everything, and a high number on its own does not prove quality — but it is checkable and it is revealing. What you are testing is whether the figure can be broken down at all.
A good answer sounds like: an approximate number given as a range, separated clearly into the surgeon’s personal cases and the clinic’s total, with a note on which cases they refer elsewhere.
An answer that should worry you: large round marketing numbers, clinic totals presented as one surgeon’s experience, or a figure that cannot be broken down when you ask.
Q6. Who else is in the operating room, and exactly what will non-surgeons do?
In some fields, parts of procedures can be carried out by technicians or assistants rather than the surgeon. What is permitted varies by country and by procedure, and patients are not always told. Ask which steps the surgeon performs personally.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Each role named, the surgeon’s own steps stated explicitly, and confirmation that the surgeon is present for the whole operation rather than between rooms. | “It is a team approach” and nothing more. Visible irritation at the question. No clear answer on whether the surgeon stays in the room throughout. |
3. The procedure itself
Q7. Which technique are you proposing for me, and why that one rather than the alternatives?
The reasoning matters more than the technique. You are listening for a decision made about you, not a house method applied to everyone.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| The technique named, tied to a specific finding in your case, with its trade-offs stated — what it costs you as well as what it gains. | A branded technique described as newest or best, with no trade-offs and no alternative considered. The same operation offered to every patient in the brochure. |
Q8. What kind of anaesthesia, who administers it, and are they a specialist anaesthetist?
Anaesthesia carries its own set of risks, separate from the surgery, and serious events are rare but real. Who is watching you, and with what monitoring, is a separate question from who is operating — and it is often the question nobody asks.
A good answer sounds like: the type of anaesthesia named, a specialist anaesthetist identified as present throughout, a pre-operative anaesthetic assessment offered, and fasting instructions coming from that clinician rather than from a sales team.
An answer that should worry you: “just sedation, nothing to worry about”, no clear answer on who administers it, or the operating surgeon also managing the anaesthesia.
Q9. How long will it take, and what do you do if you find something unexpected during the operation?
This tests consent. You want to know the boundary of what you have agreed to before you are unconscious.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| A realistic range rather than a single figure, and a stated rule: what they would stop and discuss with you afterwards, versus what your consent already covers. | “We do whatever is needed” with no limit. An exact duration promised. Two unrelated operations scheduled on the same day to save you a trip. |
4. Risks, and what happens when they occur
Q10. What are the specific complications of this operation, and which have you had to manage in the last year?
A surgeon who operates regularly will almost always have managed complications at some point. Saying so is a mark of competence, not weakness.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| The named complications of this specific procedure, including the rare serious ones, offered without being dragged out — plus a frank account of cases they have managed and what they did. | “Complications are very rare with us.” Only minor or cosmetic risks mentioned. The words risk-free, painless, or guaranteed appearing anywhere in the reply. |
Q11. If a complication happens while I am still in the country, where exactly am I treated, and by whom at 3am?
Day-case clinics and hotel-based aftercare are common in this market. The question is not whether the clinic is nice, but whether an escalation pathway exists and has a name attached.
A good answer sounds like: the receiving hospital named, the transfer arrangement described, a clinician on call overnight identified by role, a phone number that reaches a clinical person rather than a coordinator, and a clear statement of who pays for that care.
An answer that should worry you: “that will not happen”; overnight recovery in a hotel with no named transfer hospital; a night-time contact who turns out to be your driver.
Q12. What is this facility’s licence and accreditation, and what does it have on site?
Accreditation such as JCI is a statement about a facility’s processes when it was assessed, not a guarantee about your surgeon or your outcome. National licensing is the floor. What matters just as much is what physically exists in the building: intensive care beds, overnight nursing, blood availability, a resuscitation team.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| The licensing authority named with a number you can check, the accreditation body named if claimed, and an honest list of what the facility does not have on site, with the plan for those situations. | Logos on a website with no certificate or number. “Internationally accredited” with no organisation named. No answer about intensive care or overnight cover. |
5. Recovery and the journey home
Q13. When is it safe for me to fly, and who decides that?
Major surgery and air travel each raise the risk of a blood clot, and combining them too soon compounds it. How long you should wait depends on the procedure and on you — so the decision belongs to a clinician who has seen you after the operation, not to a package that was priced before it.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| A minimum stay, a review appointment before departure, a named clinician who signs you off, and explicit acknowledgement that your flight date may need to move at your own cost. | A fixed return flight sold as part of the package. “You can fly the next day” presented as a convenience feature. |
Q14. What do the first two weeks actually demand of me?
Recovery is logistics before it is medicine: who changes a dressing, whether you can wash, how you sleep, whether you can be alone.
A good answer sounds like: a written plan by day, including follow-up appointments, wound care, sleeping position, washing, and a clear statement of whether you need someone with you and for how long.
An answer that should worry you: “you will be fine in a couple of days”, nothing in writing, and no mention of needing help at home.
Q15. What is restricted, and for how long?
Ask specifically about lifting, driving, your actual job, exercise, swimming, sun, alcohol and smoking. Driving may also affect your motor insurance in some countries, and the answer is not always the same as the medical one — check your own policy wording rather than relying on the clinic.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Each restriction given with a duration and a reason, adjusted to what you actually do for work, and offered before you have to ask. | “Back to normal life immediately.” Restrictions that only appear in the discharge paperwork after the operation. |
These are emergency department thresholds, wherever you are, and they override waiting for a clinic to reply: chest pain or new breathlessness; a swollen, hot or painful calf; coughing up blood; fever with shaking chills; a wound that opens, bleeds heavily or discharges pus with spreading redness; severe or rapidly worsening abdominal pain; being unable to pass urine; sudden change in vision; confusion; fainting; swelling of the face, lips or throat, or a rash with difficulty breathing; or pain that is escalating rather than settling.
Go the same day. If symptoms are severe or you feel very unwell, call your local emergency number for an ambulance rather than travelling yourself. Tell the emergency team exactly what operation you had, where, and when — and hand over your operative note. Email the clinic afterwards, not instead. This list is a general safety net, not a complete one: ask your surgical team for the warning signs specific to your procedure, and treat any symptom that frightens you as reason enough to be seen.
Some complications — clots, infections, wound breakdown — can appear days or weeks after you are home, once the clinic is a time zone away and the follow-up appointments have finished. Keep the red-flag list, your operative note and your medication list somewhere you can find them in a hurry, and make sure someone at home knows what operation you had.
6. If it goes wrong
Q16. What is your revision policy, in writing?
Verbal guarantees are worth nothing across a border. You want a document you can read before you pay.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| A written policy stating what counts as a revision, the time limit, who decides, and exactly which costs are covered — surgeon’s fee, facility, implants, medication, and whether flights and accommodation are yours. | “Lifetime guarantee.” “We will look after you.” A policy that exists but is only shown to you after the deposit clears. |
Q17. If I have a problem once I am home, who treats me?
Your home health system will treat an emergency. It may not take on planned follow-up or revision of an operation it did not perform — the NHS, for example, states it is not obliged to provide routine aftercare for treatment arranged privately abroad, and other publicly funded systems set their own rules. Check what yours will and will not do before you book, and tell your own doctor before you travel — it is far easier than explaining afterwards.
A good answer sounds like: they will write to your home clinician with an operative note, they give a contact route for your doctor to reach the surgeon directly, and they say plainly that follow-up at home is your own system’s decision, not their promise.
An answer that should worry you: “your GP will handle it”, or any suggestion that you need not tell your own doctor.
Q18. What records will I leave with, how are you insured, and how do I make a complaint?
Records are the only thing that travels home with you reliably. Ask in the same breath what medical liability or indemnity cover the surgeon and facility carry, and which authority regulates them. Complaint routes and the legal position vary by country and you must check the local one — but the clinic should be able to name it without hesitating.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Operative note, anaesthetic record, implant or device details with lot numbers, laboratory results, discharge summary and medication list — in English as well as the local language — plus confirmation of indemnity cover, the regulator’s name, and the law and country governing your contract. | A photograph of a certificate. “We will email it later.” No answer on insurance or indemnity, no idea which authority regulates them, or a contract only in a language you cannot read. |
7. The money
Q19. What does the quote include and exclude, line by line?
An all-in figure is not a price; it is a headline. The exclusions are where the surprises live.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| An itemised quote: surgeon, anaesthesia, facility, implants or devices, nights included, medication, follow-up visits, transfers, accommodation, interpreter — with a separate list of what is deliberately excluded. | One number and the word “everything”. A price valid only if you book within days. Refusal to itemise on request. |
Q20. What could add cost after I arrive, and who authorises it?
Extra nights, an unplanned test, a changed implant, treating a complication: these are foreseeable, so their prices should be foreseeable too.
A good answer sounds like: the realistic add-on scenarios named with indicative prices, and a rule that no chargeable change happens without your written agreement, or your next-of-kin’s if you cannot give it.
An answer that should worry you: “we will discuss it when you are here”, or a contract clause saying additional charges may apply with nothing further.
Q21. What are the deposit and refund terms — including if you cancel, or decline me on arrival?
The fairest test of a clinic’s terms is what happens when they are the ones who stop.
| A good answer sounds like | An answer that should worry you |
|---|---|
| Written terms covering what is refundable and when, what happens if pre-operative tests rule you out, what happens if you are unwell on the day, and payment to a company account whose name matches the contract. | A deposit non-refundable in every circumstance, including their cancellation. Cash on arrival, payment to a personal account, or cryptocurrency. |
Ordinary travel insurance frequently excludes planned medical treatment abroad and anything arising from it, and a European health card covers state-provided emergency care rather than treatment you have travelled for. Do not assume you are covered because you usually are: read your policy wording, ask your insurer in writing whether this specific trip and procedure are covered, and keep the reply.
Grading the whole conversation
Read the replies together rather than one by one. The three things you are grading are: specificity about people, honesty about uncertainty, and calmness about money. A team that names its surgeon, gives ranges instead of promises and lets you take a month to decide is showing you the habits you want — though none of it is a guarantee, and good manners in an inbox are not the same as good surgery.
Verify independently what can be verified: the surgeon’s registration with the national regulator where a public register exists, the facility’s licence with the national health authority, the accreditation with the accrediting body directly rather than through a logo. Reviews and before-and-after galleries are marketing assets and should be weighted accordingly.
Ask for the consent form and the contract in a language you read fluently, and ask for them several days before you travel rather than on arrival. Clinics are not always obliged to agree, and what you are entitled to varies by country — but the request itself is reasonable, and how it is received tells you something. Consent signed in an unfamiliar language, in a pre-operative gown, an hour before surgery, is consent in name only. Reading the documents early is often the moment the exclusions and the revision terms finally become visible.
One. They will not name the surgeon who will operate on you until you have paid. Two. They tell you there are no real risks, or offer a guaranteed result in place of a written revision policy. Certainty of that kind is not confidence; it is a sales script, and it tells you what they will say when something goes wrong. Three. They apply pressure: a price that expires, a deposit demanded during the first conversation, payment to a personal account, or any discouragement from telling your own doctor or seeking a second opinion. Walk away, and do it without arguing — you owe a clinic nothing at this stage.
Frequently asked questions
Is it rude to send twenty-one questions before a consultation?
No, and how a clinic reacts to the list is part of the assessment. Surgical teams that treat international patients routinely handle detailed written questions, because informed consent across a border depends on it. If a team responds with irritation, delay or an insistence on discussing it by phone instead, that reaction is a finding. You are the one carrying the risk and the cost of the journey.
What if the clinic answers all twenty-one perfectly?
Good answers are necessary but not sufficient — an answer can be a well-rehearsed script. Verify the parts that can be checked independently: the surgeon's registration with the national medical regulator where a public register exists, the facility's licence with the national health authority, and any accreditation with the accrediting body itself rather than a logo on a website. Then check that what was promised in the email also appears in the contract and consent form.
Which answers must I have in writing before paying a deposit?
At minimum: the name of the operating surgeon, the revision policy with its time limits and cost coverage, the itemised quote with exclusions, and the deposit and refund terms including what happens if the clinic cancels or declines you after pre-operative tests. Ask in writing what medical liability or indemnity cover the surgeon and facility carry, and separately confirm with your own insurer whether your travel policy covers this trip — planned treatment abroad is commonly excluded. Keep the email thread; it is your record of what was represented.
The patient coordinator answers everything. Is that a problem?
Coordinators legitimately handle logistics, pricing and paperwork. Clinical questions — candidacy, technique, anaesthesia, complications, what happens if something is found mid-procedure — should be answered by the clinician who will operate, and you can ask for that specifically. If the surgeon never appears in the conversation before the day of surgery, you are consenting to an operation from someone you have not spoken to.
Does JCI accreditation mean a hospital abroad is safe?
Accreditation is a statement about a facility's processes at the time it was assessed, not a guarantee about the individual surgeon operating on you or the outcome of your case. It is a reasonable filter and its absence is a meaningful signal, but it does not replace checking the surgeon's registration, the escalation pathway for complications and what the building actually has on site. Confirm any claimed accreditation with the accrediting body directly, which publishes a searchable list of the organisations it has accredited.
- NHS — Cosmetic surgery abroad
- NHS — Going abroad for medical treatment
- CDC Yellow Book — Medical Tourism
- General Medical Council — checking the UK medical and specialist registers
- Joint Commission International — find accredited international organizations
- Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Health — national health authority and health tourism regulator
