The Consultation

Aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery is a visual art, involving a honed appreciation of aesthetic form and physical function. We can best demonstrate this to you with photography, and we use plain photography, three dimensional image analysis, or more sophisticated scanning where necessary.

We pay great attention to photography for the analysis of results, distances, shadows and volumes, and this close quality control gives us the power to constantly refine our work – which is our practice philosophy and professional responsibility. We achieve comprehensive, harmonious rejuvenation without a ‘surgical look’, and have the results to prove it.

Pre – Admission and Anaesthetic preparation

Depending upon your planned procedure and state of general health you will have a preadmission phone call or appointment at your hospital of choice where you will have a general health check which will raise any particular concerns for our Consultant Anaesthetists.

Day of Surgery

You will be greeted by the nursing staff who will be knowledgeable about your procedure and our practice. You will have a private ensuite room, in whichever of our central or regional practice hospitals you choose. All our hospitals uphold the highest quality standards of the UK Healthcare Commission.

You will be seen by Raj Ragoowansi, and by one of our Consultant Anaesthetists, where any lingering questions will be answered. Final consents will be undertaken based upon information that has already been discussed in clinic, and surgical marking will be done.

You will be accompanied to theatre by your nominated nurse and will be greeted there by Mr Ragoowansi and our Consultant Anaesthetist colleague, who will ensure smooth induction of anaesthesia or sedation as previously planned, and will be present to keep you safe throughout your surgery and to ensure a smooth recovery. Our team of anaesthetists are all UK NHS Consultants, with whom we regularly undertake both cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. At the end of the operation you will wake up in the recovery room, and will transfer to your private room soon thereafter.

All our patients can be assured of our total commitment to their care throughout their recovery, included in the cost of their procedure. We will provide 24 hour administrative support (in emergency out of hours), and our clinical nurse specialist and the ward staff at your hospital base will field any initial clinical concerns, referring immediately to Raj Ragoowansi when necessary. You will receive a call at 48 hours after your discharge from hospital to ensure that all is well, and will have a follow up appointment made to see your surgeon appropriately. Suture removal, where necessary, will be undertaken by one of our nursing team, usually in parallel with your surgeon’s clinic to be able to flag up any concerns which arise.

Routine outpatient follow up is arranged for as long as required and is included within the cost of your procedure. We want you to feel secure that your wellbeing remains our primary concern for as long as necessary before, during, and after your procedure.

Surgical Risk and Responsibility

Complications of surgery may occur for a variety of reasons and are distressing for the surgeon, the care team and the patient. We seek to minimize the risk of complications from the moment the consultation process begins up to the point of successful discharge from post-operative outpatient review. This process begins with a thorough assessment of operative risk, which we will explain in detail with relevance to the health and lifestyle of each individual patient.

Surgical procedures carry inherent risk, and we will minimize this risk by advising on the appropriate procedure for the appropriate individual need, balanced against background health, medications and recovery time. A broad range of techniques are available to achieve individual aims, and each carries a different risk for different individuals. Sometimes surgery may not be indicated because the risk of a complication for the individual is too high, and we will be honest about this, recommending alternatives where possible, and advising on strategies for stopping smoking and improving general health and fitness pre-operatively where necessary. From the consultation process, a partnership develops between the surgeon and the patient to understand the element of risk and minimize it appropriately to keep complications at bay.

Where complications occur we will manage them to the best of our ability to achieve the optimum final result. If secondary surgery is required we will undertake it as necessary with a full explanation of aims and outcomes. We will not hesitate to refer to respected Consultant colleagues for advice where appropriate, and are ourselves often called upon in this capacity by colleagues. We undertake to see the care of our patients to the best conclusions and aim at all times for the highest standards of clinical governance.

The unfavourable aesthetic result

We aim for sympathetic, comprehensive and harmonious results from our work, and achieve this by advising appropriate procedures for appropriate patients. As a result, we develop good relationships with our patients and deliver results that we are proud of. The basis of this philosophy is the time we take in consultation to learn and understand what our patients expect from their procedures, and to explain what our advice will deliver for each individual. We illustrate our treatment plans for each new patient with evidence from our own experience, and we closely follow our results so that we continue to refine and improve our practice. This philosophy means that we understand patient expectations, and we tailor our advice to suit the expected aims where possible. If expectation is unrealistic, we will say so. We are fortunate that we develop good relationships with our patients, and have a track record of delivery of the highest patient care with the optimum aesthetic outcome.