Lifestyle
Medical tourism has also arrived in Vienna. More and more men are traveling to Turkey for a hair transplant. In Vienna, a Turkish private clinic has even opened an information office. Criticism comes from local doctors.
Since March, the Turkish private clinic Acibadem has had an office on Zieglergasse, where medical interventions for Viennese are organized and the trip arranged. “Most patients from Austria travel to Turkey for aesthetic operations, such as hair transplants. However, eye laser operations and dental treatments are also offered,” said Cem Üstündag from Acibadem Vienna.
In Vienna, contact is established with the surgeons and the procedure is planned. The office looks after around 50 customers per month. One is Florian Huber, who had his eyes lasered and now no longer needs glasses. “There are two reasons: The price-performance ratio and an ophthalmologist friend of mine also recommended Turkey to me because he said that if I wanted to have my eyes lasered somewhere outside of Austria, then I should do it in Turkey,” says Huber compared to “Vienna Today”.
Turkish private clinic advertises in Vienna for customers
Turkey is considered a Mecca for hair transplants. Aesthetic procedures are booming and so is medical and health tourism. Vienna is also willing to do this, which is why a Turkish private clinic opened an information office in March to advise and refer patients.
Complications end up in local hospitals
In Vienna, the operation costs around 5,000 euros. In Turkey, the procedure is between 1,000 and 2,000 euros. The local plastic surgeon Rupert Koller from the Ottakring Clinic has no doubts about the medical competence of the doctors abroad. He still criticizes.
“We feel that in the last few weeks and months we have seen an influx of patients who are being operated on in Turkey or Azerbaijan or non-neighboring countries, and then come back with complications. And these then have to be treated in the public hospitals,” said the head of the plastic surgery department at the Ottakring clinic. As an example, he cites increasing problems after breast surgery.
“Also have stricter requirements”
“We also have stricter requirements and now have to meet strict criteria for the equipment of an operating room, which are perhaps not as strict and cheaper in other countries,” Koller also explains the price differences for interventions. Addendum: “It also costs a beefsteak in Austria more than in Turkey.”
When it comes to hair transplants, Acibadem wants to calm things down. The intervention is harmless, but according to the Turkish provider, the expertise is all the greater: “If only because of the number of cases that are carried out. The doctors there have really been doing this for more than 20 years and are constantly renewing the technology for it,” says Cem Üstündag from Acibadem Vienna.