We chose a surgeon and a clinic in another country, Weight Loss Riga in Latvia, which is not a decision we made lightly or quickly. It came after weeks of comparing options, reading reviews that felt genuine rather than staged, and asking questions that made more than one clinic visibly less keen to keep talking to us. Looking back, that discomfort on their end was useful information in itself.
Why this decision deserves more scrutiny than it usually gets
Choosing a bariatric surgeon is not like choosing most other specialists. You are trusting one person with a permanent change to your anatomy, and the quality of that decision shapes your risk of complications, the support you get afterward, and honestly how safe you actually feel walking into surgery day. It is worth treating this choice with more scrutiny than convenience, price, or how quickly you can get a date would otherwise suggest.
Credentials that are actually worth checking
In the UK, look for surgeons recognised by the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society, which offers training, assessment, and endorsement specifically for bariatric practice. Internationally, accreditation bodies such as the European Accreditation Council for Bariatric Surgery evaluate both surgeons and the centres they operate in, assessing qualifications and outcomes rather than marketing claims. A surgeon who is vague or visibly defensive when asked directly about accreditation and case volume is telling you something, whether they mean to or not.
The questions that actually separated the clinics we considered
How many sleeve gastrectomies does the surgeon perform each year, and how does that compare to their bypass or revision numbers. What is their personal complication and revision rate, not just a general figure for the hospital as a whole. What does aftercare genuinely look like in the first year, and who do you actually contact if something feels wrong outside a scheduled appointment. One clinic we spoke with answered every one of these clearly and without hesitation. Another gave us a brochure. We went with the first.
Beyond the surgeon themselves
The surgeon is one part of a team, and the strength of that wider team matters just as much over time. Ask about access to a dietitian, psychological support, and a clear pathway for annual blood test monitoring, since long-term aftercare is where a lot of the real value, and the real risk if it is missing, actually sits years down the line. Because we had surgery abroad, we specifically asked how follow-up care would work once we were back in the UK, and whether our GP would be properly looped in rather than left guessing. That question alone eliminated one clinic from consideration.
What we would tell someone starting this search now
Do not let a good sales conversation substitute for a good clinical answer. Write your questions down beforehand, ask them in the same order to every clinic you are comparing, and pay close attention to how each one responds when a question makes them slightly uncomfortable. The clarity we got in those early, sometimes awkward conversations turned out to be a genuinely reliable signal for how the rest of the process, and the two years since, actually went.
Sources
British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society information on surgeon training and accreditation.
Information on international bariatric surgery accreditation standards, including the European Accreditation Council for Bariatric Surgery.
About this content
This blog is written by James and Kirsten, a couple from the UK who had gastric sleeve surgery together in March 2024.
We started this blog because we couldn't find any sources of content that details before surgery, the surgery and then life post surgery - so we decided to write one ourselves.
Everything on this site is based on our own experience and the research we have done along the way. It is not medical advice. Gastric sleeve surgery is a serious procedure and every patient's journey is different. Please always consult your own bariatric team or GP before making any decisions about your health or treatment.
Some posts on this site may contain featured or sponsored content, or affiliate links. Where this is the case, it will always be clearly stated at the top of the article. Our opinions are always our own.
Publish Date: 13 August 2026 | Last Reviewed: 9 August 2026 | Next Planned Review: 9 February 2028