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🇹🇷  Weight-loss surgery in Turkey

How to check the clinic and the surgeon in Turkey's own registers, the risks, and the days before you can fly home. We do not list or rank clinics.

Last reviewed · official reputable

Not medical advice. Talk to your own doctor or dentist before you book. Gastric sleeve, bypass, band and balloon make the stomach smaller. It is major surgery with follow-up for life: UK surgeons' societies urge caution with surgery abroad, mainly because the follow-up at home is often missing.

Check the clinic and the surgeon

Clinics

Ministry of Health: healthcare providers authorised for health tourism

Four lists: hospitals, medical centres, private practices, other providers. Check that the exact clinic and address you are booked into is listed: an authorisation is not transferable between sites.

Clinics

HealthTürkiye (USHAŞ, under the Ministry of Health): certified providers and facilitators

Explains the certification of clinics and of the agencies (facilitators) that sell treatment to foreigners; agencies need their own authorisation.

The surgeon: We found no public online register of individual doctors in Turkey. Ask for the surgeon's full name, diploma and specialist certificate, and check that the clinic is on the Ministry's list.

The rules in Turkey

  • Clinics and hospitals treating international patients need a health tourism authorisation from the Ministry of Health, and so do the agencies that recruit patients.
  • The UK Foreign Office reports that 7 British nationals died in Turkey in 2025 following medical procedures.

The trip

  • One trip, but a long one: at least 10 days before flying home, then two years of specialist follow-up you must arrange at home before you go.
  • The CDC advises not flying for 10 days after chest or abdominal surgery.
  • Leaving hospital: You can usually leave hospital one to three days after surgery.
  • Earliest flight home: Avoid flying for 10 days after abdominal surgery.
  • From liquids to runny food: First two weeks: water and fluids. Weeks 3 and 4: runny food such as yoghurt or purée.

Your dates in the recovery planner · The full cost of the trip

Red flags

  • No questions about your BMI, health conditions or eating history before a date is offered.
  • Surgery booked within days of first contact, or several procedures combined to lower the price.
  • No named surgeon, or no plan for what happens if you have a complication after you fly home.
  • Packages that send you home before 10 days.

Ask the clinic

  1. Who is the surgeon, how many of these operations do they do a year, and where are they registered?
  2. Which operation exactly, and why that one for me?
  3. Is a dietitian and a psychological assessment part of the preparation?
  4. How many nights in hospital, and who sees me before I fly?
  5. What follow-up is included for two years, and what happens if I have a leak or another complication at home?
  6. Who looks after me in the first 24 hours after the anaesthetic, and what do I tell the anaesthetist? Tell them about every health condition (for example sleep apnoea) and every medicine.

Back home

🇬🇧  If you live in United Kingdom

The NHS does not pay for private treatment you choose abroad, and your EHIC or GHIC does not cover planned treatment. Standard travel insurance does not normally cover you if you travelled for elective surgery: you may need specialist cover.

The NHS is not liable for negligence or failure of treatment abroad, and the Foreign Office cannot usually help: planned treatment is treated as a commercial arrangement. Plan your aftercare and how records will be shared before you go.

🇮🇪  If you live in Ireland

The HSE Cross Border Directive scheme only refunds planned care in another EU or EEA country that is publicly funded in Ireland, with a referral, up to what it would cost in the Irish public system; travel and accommodation are not refunded. So cosmetic treatments and hair transplants, which are not publicly funded in Ireland, are outside it.

Ask your GP before you go how follow-up would work once you are home, and check whether your travel insurance covers planned treatment and its complications: many policies exclude it.

🇫🇷  If you live in France

Purely aesthetic procedures are not reimbursed by the Assurance Maladie, in France or abroad, and neither is the follow-up care of such an operation. Planned care abroad is only reimbursed when it is reimbursable in France, sometimes with prior authorisation.

If a complication occurs, the care it needs is medical and is covered normally. A result you are unhappy with is not a complication: corrective work is at your cost.

🇺🇸  If you live in United States

Check whether your health plan covers anything abroad: most do not cover planned treatment, and Original Medicare generally does not pay for care outside the United States, with limited exceptions. Consider supplemental cover, including medical evacuation.

Seek care promptly if a complication develops, during travel or after you return, and bring your overseas records in English. Legal recourse abroad may be more limited than in the United States.

🇦🇺  If you live in Australia

Medicare doesn't cover you when you're overseas, reciprocal health care agreements only cover some situations, and basic travel insurance rarely covers medical tourism: get a specialised policy for your procedure, its complications and medical evacuation, and tell your insurers everything.

You, your family or your insurer pay for further care or an evacuation. Consular staff can contact your family and give lists of English-speaking hospitals and lawyers, but cannot pay bills or recommend surgeons. Smartraveller advises taking someone with you.

🇳🇿  If you live in New Zealand

Make sure your travel insurance covers complications and medical evacuation, and talk to your health practitioner in New Zealand about the procedure and its risks before you go.

Get copies of your surgical details before you leave: problems can appear once you are home, and your practitioner in New Zealand will need them. Check with a health practitioner before flying after surgery.

🇸🇦  If you live in Saudi Arabia

The Ministry of Health sends patients abroad at its expense only by royal order or by a decision of the High Medical Committee approved by the minister. Planned treatment you choose yourself, such as cosmetic surgery, is private and at your own cost.

For patients the ministry refers abroad, the Saudi health attaché in the country of treatment arranges the appointment and follows the patient; private patients are on their own. Talk to your doctor in Saudi Arabia before you go and bring your records home.

Official travel advice

Sources

More on weight-loss surgery abroad and on treatment in Turkey.