The UK government is partnering with TikTok in a new initiative to provide more reliable and accurate information to those using social media to plan cosmetic procedures.

More people are using social media apps like TikTok to research potentially risky cosmetic surgeries, such as hair transplants and dental work, abroad as they are often cheaper or more readily available than in the UK. This surgeries, however, are also often presented with slick marketing campaigns that may not highlight the potential risk inherent in these surgeries and procedures.

In an effort to keep patients better informed, TikTok and the government have partnered with medical influences, like Midwife Marley and Doc Tally to create content to show the risks, help carry out thorough research and provide advice on how to make trips as safe as possible.

The Foreign Office will also provide more detailed travel advice for those seeking to travel abroad for what they call ‘tweakments.’

“Too many people are being left with life-altering injuries after going abroad for medical procedures, without access to proper advice or safeguards,” health minister Karin Smyth said.

“Often drawn in by deals too good to be true and promoted by influencers – some of whom have never been to the practice in question.

“By partnering with TikTok, we’re helping people make safer, more informed choices before they go under the knife – wherever that may be.”

The campaign warns that when it comes to cosmetic surgery abroad, the lowest price can come at the highest cost.

It urges people to think beyond the slick brochures and marketing, and to consider clinical standards, complication risks, and language barriers.

It will urge potential patients to speak to a UK doctor, take out travel insurance, and steer clear of package holidays that bundle in procedures.

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The medics will provide a check list to go through before considering booking a procedure abroad: research thoroughly, check the clinic’s regulation and the surgeon’s credentials, know the full cost, understand the aftercare, and ask the vital question – if it goes wrong, who will fix it?

The online campaign is part of wider government efforts to curb medical tourism. Work is underway to stop events in the UK that promote procedures abroad and the government is working with other countries to improve patient care from initial consultations to post-surgery recovery.

The government is looking at additional ways of protecting patients who go abroad for these types of procedures, while ensuring the NHS is not left to pick up the tab of botched or harmful work.