UK patients know how to check a UK consultant: GMC register, specialist register, CQC reports. Considering Istanbul, most people don't know the equivalent moves — so they fall back on Instagram followers and review counts, which is exactly what package clinics are optimised to win. Here's the real checklist.
Two credentials travel with full weight: FACS (Fellow of the American College of Surgeons — searchable in the ACS public directory) and FEBOPRAS (the European Board of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery — the same EU-level board certification many UK consultants hold). Both are independently verifiable online in minutes. A surgeon holding either passed external, international scrutiny; holding both is a strong signal.
Search the surgeon's name on PubMed or Google Scholar. Peer-reviewed publications and an academic title (Assoc. Prof. means a formal, state-verified academic appointment in Türkiye) can't be bought with marketing budget.
Türkiye licenses health-tourism providers: an official Ministry authorisation certificate with a number you can ask for. Its absence in a practice courting international patients is a red flag with paperwork.
Message the clinic with a clinical question. If a sales coordinator answers everything and the surgeon remains a photograph, you've learned the model. If the surgeon replies personally — especially with questions back — you've found the other kind.
Twenty minutes of this filters the market better than a hundred reviews. And yes — every claim above is checkable for this practice; that's rather the point.
