Cosmetic surgery: Government launches TikTok campaign to highlight harms of overseas procedures

The government has enlisted the help of social media platform TikTok to raise awareness of the serious risks people face when travelling overseas for cosmetic procedures. The Department of Health and Social Care has partnered with medical influencers to create online content showcasing the risks and providing advice on how to make trips safer, including through researching the providers and surgeons.The government hopes the campaign will help protect patients and reduce costs for the NHS of fixing procedures that go wrong. Last year The BMJ revealed that around 5000 people were going abroad for bariatric surgery every year, with doctors calling for an urgent national public awareness campaign to inform people of the risks of cut priced procedures.1One of the online campaign’s main messages is that cosmetic surgery abroad may cost less but can be high risk and that people should think beyond the often aggressive marketing and consider clinical…