When you start researching gastric sleeve surgery, one of the first big questions is whether to stay in the UK or travel abroad. It’s a decision we wrestled with for a long time. In the end, we chose to go to Weight Loss Riga in Latvia – and while it was a significant step, it was the right one for us. This post covers what that decision actually looked like, how we verified the clinic and surgeon, and what the practical reality of surgery abroad involved.
Why we considered going abroad
The core reason was financial. Private surgery in the UK in 2024 was running £12,000-£18,000 per person. Going abroad, both of us could have surgery for less than the UK cost of one procedure. Once Kirsten decided she wanted surgery too, the maths of going together to Latvia became significantly more compelling than waiting separately for NHS pathways or paying private UK prices for two.
We’ve covered the actual numbers in detail in our cost breakdown post. The short version: our total for both of us in Latvia was £10,914.70 including surgery, flights, travel insurance and accommodation.
The concerns we had
Going abroad for major surgery raises real questions, and we’d be doing a disservice to anyone reading this if we glossed over them. The main ones for us were: how do you verify a surgeon and clinic you can’t physically visit beforehand; what happens if something goes wrong once you’re home; and what does aftercare look like at a distance?
The NHS and GMC registers that you’d use to verify a UK surgeon don’t apply abroad. Clinic websites in any country are marketing documents. English-language testimonials can be curated. This is a genuine problem with medical tourism and it requires active due diligence rather than passive trust.
How we verified the clinic and surgeon
We had an unusual advantage: James’s employer has an office in Riga. The office manager there – a local, operating in Latvian – agreed to research the clinic and surgeon through Latvian-language sources: local medical forums, Latvian professional registers, local patient reviews and healthcare directories. The picture that came back was that the surgeon we’d been quoted by was genuinely well-regarded in Latvia – one of the most respected bariatric surgeons in the region locally, not just visible to English-speaking medical tourists.
That local-language verification was the thing that made us confident. Without it, we’d have been taking a much larger leap of faith based on what the clinic chose to show us. If you’re considering surgery abroad and don’t have that kind of local connection, we’d strongly recommend finding a way to access local-language reviews and professional registries rather than relying solely on what the clinic presents in English.
We also asked specific questions in writing: how many gastric sleeve procedures the surgeon had performed in the past 12 months, their staple line leak rate, what the complication protocol was, and what post-operative communication looked like once we were home. Getting these answers clearly, in writing, before booking.
The practical experience
We flew out to Riga two days before surgery. The clinic arranged transfers between the airport, hotel, and hospital. We had our pre-operative assessments – blood tests, an endoscopy (anaesthetised separately, worth factoring into your budget), and consultations with the surgical and anaesthetic teams – on the day after arrival.
Both of us had surgery on the same day in March 2024. James’s known anaesthetic reaction was flagged in advance and managed in theatre. We were discharged the following day, walking unaided, and flew home two days later. The return journey – flight plus a three-hour drive – was uncomfortable but manageable with compression socks, slip-on shoes, and loose clothing.
Neither of us had serious surgical complications. We recognise we were fortunate. The statistics on bariatric surgery complications are real, and not everyone’s experience is straightforward. The point of thorough due diligence is to reduce the probability of things going wrong – not eliminate it.
Aftercare at a distance
Post-operative follow-up was primarily remote – email and messaging contact with the clinic’s nursing team for questions in the weeks after surgery. Our UK GPs handled blood tests and prescription adjustments locally. The handover between the Latvian clinic and UK primary care was informal rather than structured – something worth understanding before you go, because you’ll need your GP to be willing to engage with your post-bariatric monitoring without having been involved in the surgery itself.
Most UK GPs will do this – bariatric patients who’ve had surgery abroad are not uncommon. But it’s worth having the conversation with your GP before you travel rather than discovering post-op that there’s friction.
Would we do it again?
Yes. But not because going abroad is straightforwardly better than surgery in the UK – it isn’t. Going abroad saved us money and gave us timing we controlled. It also required significantly more due diligence and introduced complications around aftercare that UK private surgery wouldn’t have. Whether the trade-off is right depends entirely on your specific circumstances, your risk tolerance, and the work you’re willing to do beforehand.
The advice we’d give anyone considering this route: verify the surgeon through local-language sources, get everything in writing before booking, be specific about complication protocols and aftercare at a distance, and don’t let the cost saving be the only thing driving the decision. The cost saving was real for us – but so was the preparation that made us confident it was the right clinic.
Sources cited in this post: NHS – Weight loss surgery abroad: what to consider
BOMSS – Guidance for patients considering bariatric surgery outside the UK
General Medical Council – The medical register: checking a surgeon’s credentials
Care Quality Commission – Guidance on regulated healthcare activities
- NHS, “Weight loss surgery”: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/weight-loss-surgery/
- General Medical Council, specialist register: https://www.gmc-uk.org/registration-and-licensing/the-medical-register
- British Obesity & Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS): https://bomss.org/
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: 22 November 2025 | Last Reviewed: 27 June 2026 | Next Planned Review: 27 December 2027