Do You Expect To Pay For A Consultation With A Surgeon?

There is always a debate as to whether to charge for consultations or offer them for free.

In fact I did a blog post a few years ago discussing the topic.

Traditionally a consultation with a doctor would carry with it a fee as you might expect with any professional service.

However, things are different in plastic surgery for two reasons.

1. First of all, plastic surgery is a very ‘surgical’ speciality. There is very little in the way of diagnosis and the skill and expertise is very much weighted towards the surgical ability of the surgeon rather than any clever diagnosis. It might be required in other surgical specialities such as general surgery if you presented with abdominal pain.  Most people present to a plastic surgeon with a cosmetic feature that they dislike and they have an idea about how they would like it to be corrected, and so we understand the reluctance to pay a large consultation fee.
2. Furthermore, a lot of plastic surgery is provided by commercial clinics and they routinely offer free consultations although admittedly these are often not with the surgeon themselves. This has created an expectation amongst patients to receive a free consultation. Because all of the surgeons here at the Staiano Clinic are members of the Plastic Surgery Professional Associations, BAPRAS or BAAPS, we are bound by professional guidelines and free consultations are not encouraged as we are doctors providing a professional service and we certainly do not want to be seen to be encouraging or coercing patients to have surgery.

We do charge a consultation fee.

However, I am very aware that there might be some resistance to pay a consultation fee, because you might not be able to have the surgery that you wanted, or what if you just do not like the surgeon, or are unhappy with the opinion given.

I have always stressed that the ethos behind the clinic is to create happy patients.

We are not about achieving targets and goals in relation to conversions or number of operations.

The key metric that I judge our performance on is whether our patients are happy or not.

We charge a consultation fee because I believe that there is value in coming to speak to one of us.

We are specialists in our field and we will always try and give you the best opinion on what might be right for you.

There are too many people in the cosmetic surgery world who are generalists and will operate on any part of the body, whereas here at The STAIANO Clinic everyone is a specialist with specialist knowledge and experience.

I believe that we give value to our patients and we do not take it lightly that there is a charge associated with the consultation.

Satisfaction Guarantee

That is why we have our satisfaction guarantee because if you feel that your consultation has been unhelpful or if you are not suitable for surgery, we offer a no quibble, no questions asked, full refund of your consultation fee paid.

We only ever charge for your initial consultation and all future consultations will be free, whether they are before or after surgery.

In fact we encourage our patients to come back for at least one more consultation to go over things before going ahead with surgery.

We also offer emotional support from a counsellor who specialises in the field of body image and weight management for all of our patients.

I think that you will find that if you come to The Staiano Clinic for a consultation, we will give you our best advice and you will feel the value that we offer every patient.

We are constantly striving to provide more value and to lift ourselves above the many poor standards and practices that the media loves to report on in the cosmetic surgery world.

We want to be the leading provider of cosmetic surgery that stands for quality and service and we will not be able to do this unless we can deliver over and above expectations to all of our patients.

Call us now on 0121-454 3680 or drop us an email to give us a chance to show you what world class service looks like.

Book A Consultation Online Here