Due to the increase in patients having complex bariatric surgery done abroad or privately we have been informed by the Scottish Government that “while the NHS Scotland will always provide emergency care where necessary, ALL PRE AND POST OPERATIVE CARE SHOULD BE PART OF THE PACKAGE OF CARE PURCHASED BY THE PATIENT” so the practice have had to make a difficult decision and have made a new practice policy, that going forward we will not be able to offer routine after-care which include blood tests that your consultant will require you have for monitoring. You must make sure you have a proper aftercare package in place before you are discharged, which would mean you get your bloods done privately in the UK which it is up to yourself to source this. You must also make sure that you have an email or some other way to forward the blood tests to the surgeon that performed your surgery for them to view your blood tests and make any clinical decisions. We apologise for any inconvenience but due to the growing pressures on GP surgeries and the NHS we cannot continue to do something that is essentially private care and the complex nature of ongoing management following these procedures is out with the Gp’s scope to manage safely. While we understand why patients would want to have this operation done we would advise it is not recommended by ourselves or the Scottish Government.