CHOOSING A SURGEON

It is very important to have complete confidence in your surgeon, so you should first check out his or her qualifications. Ideally your surgeon should be a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) on the specialist registry of the General Medical Council (GMC) and someone who is, or has been, a consultant to the NHS. If you can obtain personal recommendations from other patients, so much the better.

The consultation process is crucial. Before deciding to go ahead with any surgical procedure, you should consult your chosen surgeon,confirm that you are a suitable candidate (with no physical or psychological problems) and ask every question that may be worrying you - whether the procedure will hurt, what risks may be involved in an operation, that sort of thing. Only when you and the surgeon are completely satisfied that all is well should you decide to go forward with the procedure.