Medically reviewed by Professor Sandip Hindocha, GMC-registered Consultant Plastic Surgeon and NHS Clinical Director. Articles are reviewed against current UK guidance from the GMC, BAAPS, BAPRAS and NICE.
Anyone with a licence to practise medicine in the UK may legally perform cosmetic surgery. There is no separate register of cosmetic surgeons and no law reserving the word surgeon for people who have finished surgical training. That is the single fact most people searching for plastic surgery in Bedford do not know, and it is the reason this page exists.
What follows is how to check a surgeon yourself, in about ten minutes, using public registers. It applies to any consultant you are considering, here or elsewhere.
NHS or private, and what Bedford Hospital does
Bedford Hospital is part of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and it does carry out plastic surgery. The distinction that matters is why.
The NHS funds reconstructive work where there is a clinical need: skin cancer excision and repair, hand injuries, breast reconstruction after cancer, burns, congenital differences, scar revision where a scar restricts movement. Access is by GP referral. Purely cosmetic procedures are funded only in narrow circumstances set out by the local integrated care board, and a request has to meet that policy before it will be considered at all.
So if you are searching for the plastic surgery department at Bedford Hospital because you want a breast augmentation or a tummy tuck, the referral route will not usually reach it. Private practice is the route for cosmetic work. If your concern is medical, start with your GP rather than a private clinic, because the NHS pathway is the right one and it costs you nothing.
The check that settles most of it: the GMC specialist register
Every doctor practising in the UK has a seven-digit GMC number and appears on the medical register. A smaller group also appears on the GMC specialist register, which means they completed a recognised training programme in a named specialty and hold a Certificate of Completion of Training.
For plastic surgery, the entry you want to see reads Plastic Surgery. Not “surgery”, not “general surgery”, not a specialty in something else with an interest in cosmetic work. Search the register by name, read the specialty line, and note the date. It takes under a minute and it is free.
Professor Sandip Hindocha’s GMC number is 6122218. You can look it up without asking anyone for it, which is how a credential should work.
What the letters after a name mean
FRCS(Plast)
The exit examination in plastic surgery, taken at the end of specialty training. FRCS on its own is an earlier examination taken by trainees across several surgical specialties, so the bracketed part is the part that tells you the specialty.
BAAPS and BAPRAS
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons and the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Full membership of either requires entry on the GMC specialist register in plastic surgery, so membership is a useful shortcut. Both maintain searchable member lists.
Titles that mean less than they sound
“Cosmetic surgeon” is not a protected title and does not correspond to any training programme. “Aesthetic doctor” and “cosmetic physician” are the same. “Consultant” outside the NHS carries no fixed meaning either; ask which trust holds the substantive consultant post, and in which specialty. Membership of an organisation whose only entry requirement is a subscription tells you nothing at all, and there are several.
Who operates on you, and where
Two questions that catch most of the problems in cosmetic surgery in the UK.
Will the person consulting me be the person operating? GMC guidance for doctors offering cosmetic interventions says the doctor performing the procedure must seek the patient’s consent personally, rather than delegating it to a salesperson, a nurse or a patient adviser. If your first consultation is with someone who will not be in theatre, that is a reason to ask why before you pay a deposit.
Which hospital, and is it registered? Independent hospitals and clinics carrying out surgery in England must be registered with the Care Quality Commission, and their inspection reports are published. Ask for the name of the site you would be admitted to, then read its report. Ask what happens if you need to stay overnight, and who looks after you if something goes wrong at two in the morning.
Questions to ask at the consultation
Take this list with you. A surgeon who is comfortable with all of it is telling you something, and so is one who is not.
- What is your GMC number, and which specialty are you on the specialist register in?
- How many of these operations do you do in a year?
- What are the complications you see most often, and how often do they happen in your own practice?
- What is your revision rate, and who pays if a revision is needed?
- Which hospital would I be admitted to, and is it CQC registered?
- Who administers the anaesthetic, and are they a consultant anaesthetist?
- Am I a good candidate for this, and what would make me a poor one?
- What happens if I decide against it after paying a deposit?
- How long before I can drive, work, lift a child, exercise?
- How many follow-up appointments are included, and with whom?
- Can I have time to think and come back with more questions?
- Is there a non-surgical option, or an option to do nothing, that I should consider first?
GMC guidance also expects you to be given time to reflect between the consultation and the decision. A clinic pressing for a same-day booking, or offering a discount that expires this week, is working against that guidance rather than within it.
What a written quote should itemise
Prices quoted in cosmetic surgery advertising are often the surgeon’s fee alone. Two quotes are only comparable once you know what each one contains. A complete quote should show the surgeon’s fee, the anaesthetist’s fee, the hospital or theatre fee, any implant or device cost, the pre-operative assessment, all included follow-up appointments, and the terms covering revision surgery.
Ask for it in writing before you commit to anything. If a figure is described as “from”, ask what moves it upward and by how much. Our own procedure costs are quoted individually in writing after consultation, because the operation that suits you is not decided until someone has examined you. Published figures for common procedures are set out in the breast augmentation cost guide and the abdominoplasty cost guide.
Signs to walk away from
- A consultation held by someone who is not a doctor.
- A price that drops if you book today.
- No named surgeon until after the deposit.
- Surgery abroad arranged as a package, with aftercare left to your GP.
- Any promise about the result. Surgery has a range of outcomes and a rate of complications, and a surgeon who will not discuss either is not describing the operation accurately.
- Reluctance to talk about what could go wrong, or about who pays to put it right.
If you are considering surgery abroad
Cost is the usual reason, and the arithmetic can look convincing until you price the parts that are not in the package. The operation is a few hours. The recovery is weeks, and it happens after you have flown home.
Ask who reviews you at two weeks and at three months, who you telephone at night in the first fortnight, and what the arrangement is if you develop an infection or a wound problem once you are back in Bedfordshire. Ask whether the surgeon is registered with the regulator in that country and how you would verify it. Ask what happens if you need a revision, and who pays for the flights as well as the surgery. If you are flying within a few days of an operation, ask specifically about the risk of a blood clot and how it will be managed.
An NHS trust will treat a complication because it is a complication, not because it accepts responsibility for the operation, and revision work after cosmetic surgery abroad is generally not something the NHS funds. That gap is the part the package price does not cover.
If something goes wrong
Complications happen in every surgeon’s practice, including good ones, and the measure of a service is what happens next rather than whether anything ever goes wrong. Know the route before you need it.
Raise it with your surgeon first, in writing if it has already been discussed and not resolved. Every independent hospital has a complaints procedure and must tell you what it is. The Care Quality Commission takes information about the safety of a registered service in England, and the GMC handles concerns about an individual doctor’s fitness to practise. For a dispute about money or the standard of care, the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service reviews complaints about many private providers once the provider’s own process is finished.
Where Professor Hindocha consults in Bedford
Professor Sandip Hindocha is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon, GMC 6122218, and an NHS Clinical Director. He has published over 100 medical papers and trained and worked in the UK, the USA and Canada. He holds consultations at medical facilities in central Bedford, and also sees patients in London and Manchester.
Surgical and non-surgical procedures offered in Bedford are set out on the Bedford page, with the consulting locations listed on the clinics page. For breast surgery specifically, there is a fuller account on the breast augmentation in Bedford page. To arrange a consultation, use the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Does Bedford Hospital do cosmetic surgery?
Bedford Hospital, part of Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, carries out plastic surgery where there is a clinical need, by GP referral. Purely cosmetic procedures are funded by the NHS only in narrow circumstances set out by the local integrated care board, so most cosmetic work is done privately.
How do I check that a plastic surgeon is properly qualified?
Search the GMC register by name and look for an entry on the specialist register in Plastic Surgery. Membership of BAAPS or BAPRAS confirms the same thing, as both require it. A seven-digit GMC number should be given to you on request, and you can then verify it yourself.
Is “cosmetic surgeon” a protected title in the UK?
No. Any doctor holding a licence to practise may legally perform cosmetic surgery, whatever their training. The protected marker is entry on the GMC specialist register in a named surgical specialty, which is why that is the entry to check.
What should a plastic surgery quote include?
The surgeon’s fee, the anaesthetist’s fee, the hospital or theatre fee, any implant cost, the pre-operative assessment, the included follow-up appointments, and the terms covering revision surgery. Ask for it in writing, because a quote that lists only the surgeon’s fee cannot be compared with one that lists everything.
How long should I take to decide?
GMC guidance expects patients to be given time to reflect between consultation and decision, without pressure. There is no set period, and the right length depends on the operation and on you. A discount that expires before you have had that time is a reason to slow down rather than to hurry.
Can I bring someone to the consultation?
Yes, and it usually helps. A consultation covers risks, recovery and alternatives as well as the procedure itself, and a second person often remembers what you did not.
