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Oct. 30, 2004, 6:27PM
Crossing to Poland for plastic surgery
Europeans travel to new EU nations and save money on procedures


By VANESSA GERA
Associated Press

SZCZECIN, POLAND - Aylin Oflas couldn't afford to get the fat liposuctioned
from her thighs at home in Germany. So she went back across the border to the
Polish doctor who had fitted her with breast implants last year — and asked
what he could do. It didn't take the 18-year-old Berliner long to choose
Poland once again for her latest transformation.

"For what it costs in Germany to get rid of the fat in my inner thighs, the
doctor here will also take out fat around my knees and in my lower back,"
Oflas said after driving more than two hours to consult with her surgeon in
Szczecin. "And I'll even be able to get my lips made bigger while I'm at it."

The price: $3,300 — against $12,300 in Germany.


EU member benefits

Oflas joins a rising number of Germans and others from western Europe who
travel to Poland — and other new European Union members such as Hungary and
Slovakia — to pay less for plastic surgery, fertility treatment and dental
work.

It's a trend that has accelerated since Poland joined the European Union on
May 1, along with nine other countries, most from the former Soviet bloc.

The attraction of medical tourism is partly driven by regulations requiring
western European insurance companies to pay for some kinds of dental and
medical procedures done in other EU states.

With the cost of dental work in the East often a fourth to a half the German
price, it's clear why more insurers are agreeing to pay.

Despite the cheaper cost, people have questions about the quality of care in
a region that is still poorer than the West.

Maciej Pastucha, the surgeon who inserted two silicone implants into Oflas'
chest, said that the number of his German patients has doubled in the past
year, but many are still wary.

"Half of them don't trust me during the first talks on the phone or
consultations," Pastucha, 43, said in an interview at his clinic housing both
modern surgical rooms and a family-style kitchen and living room to make
patients feel at home.

"And they want to see photos," he added. "When they see pictures of my
results, from this moment, they trust me somewhat. But not 100 percent."

With salaries in state-run hospitals pitifully low, many Polish doctors
started lucrative plastic surgery practices during the mid-1990s.

Statistics on patient mobility are hard to come by because most of the
surgeries take place in private clinics. But doctors in Szczecin and
officials in the EU's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, say the trend is on
the rise in border towns such as Szczecin, a port just 10 miles from Germany
and reachable by ferry from Denmark.


Insurance covers part
Pier and Hanna Jensen, a retired couple, made the seven-hour trip by car and
ferry from Copenhagen, Denmark's capital, to Szczecin, where they underwent
extensive dental surgery at a clinic they learned about on Danish television.

They said their procedures — including crown and bridge work — would have
cost $17,000 more in Denmark. That's a huge saving, even with the cost of
travel and four nights in a hotel, and they get partial reimbursement from
their insurance company.

Before Poland joined the EU, none of the work would have been reimbursed by
insurance, they said.

"We're saving a lot of money," Pier Jensen, 67, said as he and his wife
finished dinner in a restaurant where they had been urging other Danish
tourists at a nearby table to get their dental work done here, too. "And the
dentists here are fantastic."


German doctors wary
Not surprisingly, German dentists and plastic surgeons aren't thrilled.

Dr. Heinz Bull, head of the German Society for Aesthetic Surgery, said
patients who travel to another country for surgery may not assess physician
quality as well and could wind up unable to consult their foreign doctor in
case of complications after returning home.

But Oflas said she likes Polish doctors better.

"In Germany, they are cold," she said. "The doctor here does what's best for
the patient."

Oflas said a German doctor who removed her stitches after her breast
enlargement scolded her when he learned she had the surgery in Poland.

"He said, 'You didn't go there because they're better, but just to save
money,' " she recalled.

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